From renunciation to execution: the life of the Romanovs in exile through the eyes of the last empress

On March 2, 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne. Russia was left without a king. And the Romanovs ceased to be a royal family.

Perhaps this was Nikolai Alexandrovich's dream - to live as if he were not an emperor, but simply the father of a large family. Many said that he had a gentle character. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was his opposite: she was seen as a sharp and domineering woman. He was the head of the country, but she was the head of the family.

She was prudent and stingy, but humble and very pious. She knew how to do a lot: she was engaged in needlework, painted, and during the First World War she looked after the wounded - and taught her daughters how to dress. The simplicity of the royal upbringing can be judged by the letters of the Grand Duchesses to their father: they easily wrote to him about the "idiotic photographer", "nasty handwriting" or that "the stomach wants to eat, it is already cracking." Tatyana in letters to Nikolai signed "Your faithful Ascensionist", Olga - "Your faithful Elisavetgradets", and Anastasia did this: "Your daughter Nastasya, who loves you. Shvybzik. ANRPZSG Artichokes, etc."

A German who grew up in the UK, Alexandra wrote mostly in English, but she spoke Russian well, albeit with an accent. She loved Russia - just like her husband. Anna Vyrubova, Alexandra's maid of honor and close friend, wrote that Nikolai was ready to ask his enemies for one thing: not to expel him from the country and let him live with his family "the simplest peasant." Perhaps the imperial family would really be able to live by their work. But the Romanovs were not allowed to live a private life. Nicholas from the king turned into a prisoner.

"The thought that we are all together pleases and comforts..."Arrest in Tsarskoye Selo

"The sun blesses, prays, holds on to her faith and for the sake of her martyr. She does not interfere in anything (...). Now she is only a mother with sick children ..." - the former Empress Alexandra Feodorovna wrote to her husband on March 3, 1917.

Nicholas II, who signed the abdication, was at Headquarters in Mogilev, and his family was in Tsarskoye Selo. The children fell ill one by one with the measles. At the beginning of each diary entry, Alexandra indicated what the weather was like today and what temperature each of the children had. She was very pedantic: she numbered all her letters of that time so that they would not get lost. The wife's son was called baby, and each other - Alix and Nicky. Their correspondence is more like the communication of young lovers than a husband and wife who have already lived together for more than 20 years.

“At first glance, I realized that Alexandra Fedorovna, a smart and attractive woman, although now broken and irritated, had an iron will,” wrote Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government.

On March 7, the Provisional Government decided to place the former imperial family under arrest. The attendants and servants who were in the palace could decide for themselves whether to leave or stay.

"You can't go there, Colonel"

On March 9, Nicholas arrived in Tsarskoye Selo, where he was first greeted not as an emperor. "The officer on duty shouted: 'Open the gates to the former tsar.' (...) When the sovereign passed by the officers gathered in the vestibule, no one greeted him. The sovereign did it first. Only then did everyone give him greetings," wrote valet Alexei Volkov.

According to the memoirs of witnesses and the diaries of Nicholas himself, it seems that he did not suffer from the loss of the throne. “Despite the conditions in which we now find ourselves, the thought that we are all together is comforting and encouraging,” he wrote on March 10. Anna Vyrubova (she stayed with the royal family, but was soon arrested and taken away) recalled that he was not even offended by the attitude of the guards, who were often rude and could say to the former Supreme Commander: “You can’t go there, Mr. Colonel, come back when you they say!"

A vegetable garden was set up in Tsarskoye Selo. Everyone worked: the royal family, close associates and servants of the palace. Even a few soldiers of the guard helped

On March 27, the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, forbade Nikolai and Alexandra to sleep together: the spouses were allowed to see each other only at the table and speak to each other exclusively in Russian. Kerensky did not trust the former empress.

In those days, an investigation was underway into the actions of the couple's inner circle, it was planned to interrogate the spouses, and the minister was sure that she would put pressure on Nikolai. "People like Alexandra Feodorovna never forget anything and never forgive anything," he later wrote.

Alexei's mentor Pierre Gilliard (he was called Zhilik in the family) recalled that Alexandra was furious. "To do this to the sovereign, to do this disgusting thing to him after he sacrificed himself and abdicated in order to avoid a civil war - how low, how petty!" she said. But in her diary there is only one discreet entry about this: "N<иколаю>and I'm only allowed to meet at mealtimes, not to sleep together."

The measure did not last long. On April 12, she wrote: "Tea in the evening in my room, and now we sleep together again."

There were other restrictions - domestic. The guards reduced the heating of the palace, after which one of the ladies of the court fell ill with pneumonia. The prisoners were allowed to walk, but passers-by looked at them through the fence - like animals in a cage. Humiliation did not leave them at home either. As Count Pavel Benkendorf said, "when the Grand Duchesses or the Empress approached the windows, the guards allowed themselves to behave indecently in front of their eyes, thus causing the laughter of their comrades."

The family tried to be happy with what they have. At the end of April, a garden was laid out in the park - the turf was dragged by the imperial children, and servants, and even guard soldiers. Chopped wood. We read a lot. They gave lessons to the thirteen-year-old Alexei: due to the lack of teachers, Nikolai personally taught him history and geography, and Alexander taught the Law of God. We rode bicycles and scooters, swam in a pond in a kayak. In July, Kerensky warned Nikolai that, due to the unsettled situation in the capital, the family would soon be moved south. But instead of the Crimea they were exiled to Siberia. In August 1917, the Romanovs left for Tobolsk. Some of the close ones followed them.

"Now it's their turn." Link in Tobolsk

“We settled far from everyone: we live quietly, we read about all the horrors, but we won’t talk about it,” Alexandra wrote to Anna Vyrubova from Tobolsk. The family was settled in the former governor's house.

Despite everything, the royal family remembered life in Tobolsk as "quiet and calm"

In correspondence, the family was not limited, but all messages were viewed. Alexandra corresponded a lot with Anna Vyrubova, who was either released or arrested again. They sent parcels to each other: the former maid of honor once sent "a wonderful blue blouse and delicious marshmallow", and also her perfume. Alexandra answered with a shawl, which she also perfumed - with vervain. She tried to help her friend: "I send pasta, sausages, coffee - although fasting is now. I always pull greens out of the soup so that I don’t eat the broth, and I don’t smoke." She hardly complained, except for the cold.

In Tobolsk exile, the family managed to maintain the old way of life in many ways. Even Christmas was celebrated. There were candles and a Christmas tree - Alexandra wrote that the trees in Siberia are of a different, unusual variety, and "it smells strongly of orange and tangerine, and resin flows all the time along the trunk." And the servants were presented with woolen vests, which the former empress knitted herself.

In the evenings, Nikolai read aloud, Alexandra embroidered, and her daughters sometimes played the piano. Alexandra Fedorovna's diary entries of that time are everyday: "I drew. I consulted with an optometrist about new glasses", "I sat and knitted on the balcony all afternoon, 20 ° in the sun, in a thin blouse and a silk jacket."

Life occupied the spouses more than politics. Only the Treaty of Brest really shook them both. "A humiliating world. (...) Being under the yoke of the Germans is worse than the Tatar yoke," Alexandra wrote. In her letters, she thought about Russia, but not about politics, but about people.

Nikolai loved to do physical labor: cut firewood, work in the garden, clean the ice. After moving to Yekaterinburg, all this turned out to be banned.

In early February, we learned about the transition to new style chronology. "Today is February 14. There will be no end to misunderstandings and confusion!" - wrote Nikolai. Alexandra called this style "Bolshevik" in her diary.

On February 27, according to the new style, the authorities announced that "the people do not have the means to support royal family"The Romanovs were now provided with an apartment, heating, lighting and soldier's rations. Each person could also receive 600 rubles a month from personal funds. Ten servants had to be fired. "It will be necessary to part with the servants, whose devotion will lead them to poverty," wrote Gilliard Butter, cream and coffee disappeared from the tables of the prisoners, there was not enough sugar.The local residents began to feed the family.

Food card. “Before the October Revolution, everything was plentiful, although they lived modestly,” recalled the valet Alexei Volkov. “Dinner consisted of only two courses, but sweet things happened only on holidays.”

This life in Tobolsk, which the Romanovs later recalled as quiet and calm - even despite the rubella that the children had had - ended in the spring of 1918: they decided to move the family to Yekaterinburg. In May, the Romanovs were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House - it was called a "house of special purpose." Here the family spent the last 78 days of their lives.

Last days.In "house of special purpose"

Together with the Romanovs, their close associates and servants arrived in Yekaterinburg. Someone was shot almost immediately, someone was arrested and killed a few months later. Someone survived and was subsequently able to tell about what happened in the Ipatiev House. Only four remained to live with the royal family: Dr. Botkin, footman Trupp, maid Nyuta Demidova and cook Leonid Sednev. He will be the only one of the prisoners who will escape execution: on the day before the murder he will be taken away.

Telegram from the Chairman of the Ural Regional Council to Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov, April 30, 1918

“The house is good, clean,” Nikolai wrote in his diary. “We were given four large rooms: a corner bedroom, a dressing room, a dining room next to it with windows to the garden and overlooking the low-lying part of the city, and, finally, a spacious hall with an arch without doors. "The commandant was Alexander Avdeev - as they said about him," a real Bolshevik "(later he will be replaced Yakov Yurovsky.) The instructions for protecting the family said: "The commandant must bear in mind that Nikolai Romanov and his family are Soviet prisoners, therefore, an appropriate regime is being established in the place of his detention."

The instruction ordered the commandant to be polite. But during the first search, a reticule was snatched from Alexandra's hands, which she did not want to show. “Until now, I have dealt with honest and decent people,” Nikolai remarked. But I received an answer: "Please do not forget that you are under investigation and arrest." The tsar's entourage was required to call family members by their first and patronymic names instead of "Your Majesty" or "Your Highness". Alexandra was truly pissed off.

The arrested got up at nine, drank tea at ten. The rooms were then checked. Breakfast - at one, lunch - about four or five, at seven - tea, at nine - dinner, at eleven they went to bed. Avdeev claimed that two hours of walking were supposed to be a day. But Nikolai wrote in his diary that only an hour was allowed to walk a day. To the question "why?" the former king was answered: "To make it look like a prison regime."

All prisoners were forbidden any physical labor. Nicholas asked permission to clean the garden - refusal. For a family that spent the past few months only chopping firewood and cultivating beds, this was not easy. At first, the prisoners could not even boil their own water. Only in May, Nikolai wrote in his diary: "They bought us a samovar, at least we will not depend on the guard."

After some time, the painter painted over all the windows with lime so that the inhabitants of the house could not look at the street. With windows in general it was not easy: they were not allowed to open. Although the family would hardly be able to escape with such protection. And it was hot in summer.

House of Ipatiev. “A fence was built around the outer walls of the house facing the street, quite high, covering the windows of the house,” wrote its first commandant Alexander Avdeev about the house.

Only towards the end of July one of the windows was finally opened. "Such joy, finally, delicious air and one window glass, no longer smeared with whitewash, "Nikolai wrote in his diary. After that, the prisoners were forbidden to sit on the windowsills.

There were not enough beds, the sisters slept on the floor. They all dined together, and not only with the servants, but also with the Red Army soldiers. They were rude: they could put a spoon into a bowl of soup and say: "You still get nothing to eat."

Vermicelli, potatoes, beet salad and compote - such food was on the table of the prisoners. Meat was a problem. “They brought meat for six days, but so little that it was only enough for soup,” “Kharitonov cooked a macaroni pie ... because they didn’t bring meat at all,” Alexandra notes in her diary.

Hall and living room in the Ipatva House. This house was built in the late 1880s and later bought by engineer Nikolai Ipatiev. In 1918, the Bolsheviks requisitioned it. After the execution of the family, the keys were returned to the owner, but he decided not to return there, and later emigrated

"I took a sitz bath because hot water could only be brought from our kitchen,” writes Alexandra about minor domestic inconveniences. Her notes show how gradually for the former empress, who once ruled over “a sixth of the earth”, everyday trifles become important: “great pleasure, a cup of coffee "," good nuns are now sending milk and eggs for Alexei and us, and cream.

Products were really allowed to be taken from the women's Novo-Tikhvinsky monastery. With the help of these parcels, the Bolsheviks staged a provocation: they handed over in the cork of one of the bottles a letter from a "Russian officer" with an offer to help them escape. The family replied: "We do not want and cannot RUN. We can only be kidnapped by force." The Romanovs spent several nights dressed, waiting for a possible rescue.

Like a prisoner

Soon the commandant changed in the house. They became Yakov Yurovsky. At first, the family even liked him, but very soon the harassment became more and more. "You need to get used to living not like a king, but how you have to live: like a prisoner," he said, limiting the amount of meat that came to prisoners.

Of the monastery transfers, he allowed to leave only milk. Alexandra once wrote that the commandant "had breakfast and ate cheese; he won't let us eat cream anymore." Yurovsky also forbade frequent baths, saying that they did not have enough water. He confiscated jewelry from family members, leaving only a watch for Alexei (at the request of Nikolai, who said that the boy would be bored without them) and a gold bracelet for Alexandra - she wore it for 20 years, and it was possible to remove it only with tools.

Every morning at 10:00 the commandant checked whether everything was in place. Most of all, the former empress did not like this.

Telegram from the Kolomna Committee of the Bolsheviks of Petrograd to the Council of People's Commissars demanding the execution of representatives of the Romanov dynasty. March 4, 1918

Alexandra, it seems, was the hardest in the family to experience the loss of the throne. Yurovsky recalled that if she went for a walk, she would certainly dress up and always put on a hat. "It must be said that she, unlike the rest, with all her exits, tried to maintain all her importance and the former," he wrote.

The rest of the family was simpler - the sisters dressed rather casually, Nikolai walked in patched boots (although, according to Yurovsky, he had enough whole ones). His wife cut his hair. Even the needlework that Alexandra was engaged in was the work of an aristocrat: she embroidered and wove lace. The daughters washed handkerchiefs, darned stockings and bed linen together with the maid Nyuta Demidova.

The emperor's family was executed on one of the summer nights of July from the 16th to the 17th in the largest city in Russia - Yekaterinburg. The place was chosen appropriately: the basement of a house that was common at that time, one of the local residents, the mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev. Not only the whole family, including children, but also close ones fell under the execution: Yevgeny Botkin, who served as a life doctor for the tsar; Alexey Trupp, known as a valet; Anna Demidova - servant; Ivan Kharitonov - at that time served the tsar in the person of a cook. Did Nicholas 2 assume execution, did he know about imminent death, could he actually save his family, did the royal family manage to escape? These questions still worry historians, but there is documentary evidence that is difficult to refute.

Nicholas 2: the execution of the royal family, the events before the massacre in stages

1. The date of the beginning of the armed uprising that affected Petrograd is subsidized on March 12 (if we take into account the old Russian calendar, then in those years it fell on February 27). It resulted in the abdication of the throne on March 15 by Tsar Nicholas 2 (as well as his son Alexei). The refusal was in favor of his brother Mikhail, who was younger than Nikolai. It happened in 1917, a year before the tragedy.

2. The abdication involved the arrest of the family, so from the end of the summer (August) 1917, the tsar and his family arrived at the Alexander Palace, which was located in Tsarskoye Selo. The provisional government set up a special commission to search for materials to bring the emperor's family to trial for high treason. Evidence or proof of this could not be found, so a decision was made in favor of the exile of Nicholas 2 with his entire family to the UK region.

3. However, plans changed rapidly: in the same August, the tsar and his relatives were sent to Tobolsk. This decision was made with the aim of holding an open trial of the prisoners, but it never took place in fact, and only in the spring (April) 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the royal wards to Moscow. Despite the fact that Lenin was at the head of the decision, fears from the side of "White Guard conspiracies" did not give the interim government peace. There was a high probability of kidnapping of the imperial family. That is why the prisoners were transported to the Urals in the city of Yekaterinburg and placed in the house of an unknown Ipatiev.

It is not known how long the family would have been in prison on the territory of Yekaterinburg, if it were not for the beginning of the uprising of the White Czechs, which led to the attack of the White Guards on the city. This only accelerated the decision to massacre the king.

Everything happened in a hurry, so it was entrusted to Yakov Yurovsky, then he acted as the commandant of the Special Purpose House. Documentary evidence (sources) of that terrible night with detailed description events. They said that the decree on the execution of the tsar and his relatives was delivered to their place of residence after midnight (at 1:30 a.m.) from July 16 to July 17, 1918. When the document was delivered, the life physician Botkin woke up the royal family. The gathering took about 40 minutes, then all the prisoners were taken to the basement. Everyone, except for their son Nikolai (Aleksey), went down to the execution room on their own. The father carried the child in his arms due to illness. At the insistence of Alexandra Fedorovna, two chairs were brought to the basement (for herself and her husband), and all the rest were placed along the wall. The commandant first started a firing squad, and then read out the death sentence.

Yurovsky would later describe in his own words the scene of the tsar's execution in detail, adding details and details. Based on his words, it happened like this ... Yurovsky insisted that the prisoners rise from their chairs and occupy the central and side walls basement, because the room was very small. Tsar Nicholas was located with his back to the commandant. The verdict was read to the Yurovskys and then the order to be shot. From the first shot, Nikolai was killed to death, and then firing was heard for a long time. It took a turn of carelessness, given the ricochets from the wooden walls, which caused it to stop for a while. During this short period, it was possible to understand that not all the prisoners were dead: Botkin, already in a lying state, had to be finished off with a shot from a revolver, Alexei, Anastasia, Olga, Tatyana and Demidova were among the living. They decided to end them with a bayonet, but failed because of the diamond accessories, shaped like underwear (bodice). They were shot each in turn after a few minutes.

This video contains documentary photographs of life royal family during the period of arrest.

The documentation testifies that the corpses of all those who were shot were loaded onto a truck and taken away at about 4 am. The remains were found only in 1991 near Yekaterinburg. It was possible to identify them: Nicholas 2, Alexandra Fedorovna, Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia, and the tsar's entourage was also found among the remains. After appropriate examinations, they were buried within the walls of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998. A little later, the remains of Maria and Alexei were found and identified: July 2007.

But today there are a lot of theories that do not agree with documentary evidence and the execution of the family of Nicholas 2. There are hypotheses about his staging, in order to export the emperor. Is there any confirmation of this?

One hypothesis is based on the fact that in those days, in the immediate vicinity of the house where the prisoners were, there was a factory. Back in 1905, its owner, fearing capture by the revolutionaries, made an underground tunnel under it. Its existence was confirmed by the failure of the bulldozers, in those years when Yeltsin decided to destroy the building.

There was a theory that Stalin and intelligence officers helped with the export of the royal family, identifying them in different provinces. This could have taken place during the offensive of the White Guards on Yekaterinburg, in the process of evacuating Soviet institutions. In those days, first of all, documents, valuables and property were saved, where the property of the Romanovs was.

The provisional government was afraid of a simulation of execution and instructed Captain Malinovsky to investigate Ganina Yama. He led it for a week, along with the officers, after which, a year later, he expressed his suspicion that all the facts that he observed during the investigation spoke of a staged execution.

In this video, suggestions are made about where and how the royal family lived after the rescue. Be sure to leave your questions and wishes to the article.

The family of the last Emperor of Russia, Nikolai Romanov, was killed in 1918. Due to the concealment of facts by the Bolsheviks, a number of alternative versions appear. Long time there were rumors that turned the murder of the royal family into a legend. There were theories that one of his children escaped.

What actually happened in the summer of 1918 near Yekaterinburg? You will find the answer to this question in our article.

background

Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century was one of the most economically developed countries peace. Nikolai Alexandrovich, who came to power, turned out to be a meek and noble man. In spirit, he was not an autocrat, but an officer. Therefore, with his views on life, it was difficult to manage a crumbling state.

The revolution of 1905 showed the failure of power and its isolation from the people. In fact, there were two authorities in the country. The official one is the emperor, and the real one is officials, nobles and landowners. It was the latter who destroyed the once great power with their greed, licentiousness and short-sightedness.

Strikes and rallies, demonstrations and bread riots, famine. All this was indicative of a decline. The only way out could be the accession to the throne of a powerful and tough ruler who could take control of the country completely under his control.

Nicholas II was not like that. He was focused on building railways, churches, improving the economy and culture in society. He has made progress in these areas. But positive changes affected, basically, only the tops of society, while the majority of ordinary residents remained at the level of the Middle Ages. Splinters, wells, carts and peasant-craft everyday life.

After joining Russian Empire to the First world war only increased the discontent of the people. The execution of the royal family became the apotheosis of general insanity. Next, we will look into this crime in more detail.

Now it is important to note the following. After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and his brother from the throne in the state, soldiers, workers and peasants begin to advance to the first roles. People who have not previously dealt with management, with a minimum level of culture and superficial judgments, gain power.

The petty local commissars wanted to curry favor with the higher ranks. Ordinary and junior officers simply mindlessly carried out orders. Time of Troubles, which came in these turbulent years, splashed unfavorable elements to the surface.

Next you will see more photos of the Romanov royal family. If you look at them carefully, you can see that the clothes of the emperor, his wife and children are by no means pompous. They are no different from the peasants and escorts who surrounded them in exile.
Let's see what really happened in Yekaterinburg in July 1918.

Course of events

The execution of the royal family was planned and prepared for quite a long time. While power was still in the hands of the Provisional Government, they tried to protect them. Therefore, after the events in July 1917 in Petrograd, the emperor, his wife, children and retinue were transferred to Tobolsk.

The place was specially chosen to be quiet. But in fact, they found one from which it was difficult to escape. By that time, the railway tracks had not yet been extended to Tobolsk. The nearest station was two hundred and eighty kilometers away.

It sought to protect the family of the emperor, so the exile to Tobolsk became for Nicholas II a respite before the subsequent nightmare. The king, queen, their children and retinue stayed there for more than six months.

But in April, the Bolsheviks, after a fierce struggle for power, recall the "unfinished business." A decision is made to deliver the entire imperial family to Yekaterinburg, which at that time was a stronghold of the red movement.

Prince Mikhail, the tsar's brother, was the first to be transferred to Perm from Petrograd. At the end of March, son Mikhail and three children of Konstantin Konstantinovich were sent to Vyatka. Later, the last four are transferred to Yekaterinburg.

The main reason for the transfer to the east was family ties Nicholas Alexandrovich with the German Emperor Wilhelm, as well as the proximity of the Entente to Petrograd. The revolutionaries were afraid of the release of the king and the restoration of the monarchy.

The role of Yakovlev, who was instructed to transport the emperor and his family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, is interesting. He knew about the assassination attempt on the tsar being prepared by the Siberian Bolsheviks.

Judging by the archives, there are two opinions of experts. The first say that in reality it is Konstantin Myachin. And he received a directive from the Center "to deliver the king and his family to Moscow." The latter are inclined to believe that Yakovlev was a European spy who intended to save the emperor by taking him to Japan through Omsk and Vladivostok.

After arriving in Yekaterinburg, all prisoners were placed in the Ipatiev mansion. A photo of the royal family of the Romanovs has been preserved when they were transferred to the Yakovlev Ural Council. The place of detention among the revolutionaries was called the "house of special purpose."

Here they were kept for seventy-eight days. More details about the relationship of the convoy to the emperor and his family will be discussed later. In the meantime, it is important to focus on the fact that it was rude and boorish. They were robbed, psychologically and morally crushed, mocked in such a way that it was not noticeable outside the walls of the mansion.

Considering the results of the investigations, we will dwell in more detail on the night when the monarch with his family and retinue was shot. Now we note that the execution took place at about half past three in the night. Life physician Botkin, on the orders of the revolutionaries, woke up all the captives and went down with them to the basement.

There a terrible crime took place. Yurovsky commanded. He blurted out a prepared phrase that "they are trying to save them, and the matter is urgent." None of the prisoners understood. Nicholas II only had time to ask them to repeat what was said, but the soldiers, frightened by the horror of the situation, began firing indiscriminately. Moreover, several punishers fired from another room through the doorway. According to eyewitnesses, not everyone was killed the first time. Some were finished off with a bayonet.

Thus, this indicates the haste and unpreparedness of the operation. The execution became lynching, to which the Bolsheviks who had lost their heads went.

Government disinformation

The execution of the royal family still remains an unsolved mystery of Russian history. Responsibility for this atrocity may lie both with Lenin and Sverdlov, for whom the Ural Soviet simply provided an alibi, and directly with the Siberian revolutionaries, who succumbed to general panic and lost their heads in wartime conditions.

Nevertheless, immediately after the atrocity, the government launched a campaign to whitewash its reputation. Among researchers dealing with this period, the latest actions are called the "disinformation campaign."

The death of the royal family was proclaimed the only necessary measure. Since, judging by the customized Bolshevik articles, a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was uncovered. Some white officers planned to attack the Ipatiev mansion and free the emperor and his family.

The second point, which was furiously hidden for many years, was that eleven people were shot. Emperor, his wife, five children and four servants.

The events of the crime were not disclosed for several years. Official recognition was given only in 1925. This decision was prompted by the publication in Western Europe of a book that outlined the results of Sokolov's investigation. At the same time, Bykov was instructed to write about the "real course of events." This pamphlet was published in Sverdlovsk in 1926.

Nevertheless, the lies of the Bolsheviks at the international level, as well as the concealment of the truth from the common people, shook faith in power. and its consequences, according to Lykova, caused people to distrust the government, which has not changed even in the post-Soviet era.

The fate of the rest of the Romanovs

The execution of the royal family had to be prepared. A similar "warm-up" was the liquidation of the Emperor's brother Mikhail Alexandrovich with his personal secretary.
On the night of June 12-13, 1918, they were forcibly taken out of the Perm hotel outside the city. They were shot in the forest, and their remains have not yet been discovered.

A statement was made to the international press that Grand Duke was kidnapped by intruders and disappeared without a trace. For Russia, the official version was the escape of Mikhail Alexandrovich.

The main purpose of such a statement was to speed up the trial of the emperor and his family. They started a rumor that the escapee could contribute to the release of the "bloody tyrant" from "fair punishment."

Not only the last royal family suffered. In Vologda, eight people related to the Romanovs were also killed. The victims include princes imperial blood Igor, Ivan and Konstantin Konstantinovich, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Prince Paley, steward and cell attendant.

All of them were thrown into the Nizhnyaya Selimskaya mine, not far from the city of Alapaevsk. They only resisted and were shot dead. The rest were stunned and thrown down alive. In 2009, they were all canonized as martyrs.

But the thirst for blood did not subside. In January 1919 in Peter and Paul Fortress four more Romanovs were also shot. Nikolai and Georgy Mikhailovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich and Pavel Alexandrovich. The official version of the revolutionary committee was as follows: the liquidation of the hostages in response to the assassination of Liebknecht and Luxembourg in Germany.

Memoirs of contemporaries

Researchers have tried to reconstruct how members of the royal family were killed. The best way to deal with this is the testimonies of people who were present there.
The first such source is notes from Trotsky's personal diary. He noted that the blame lies with the local authorities. He especially singled out the names of Stalin and Sverdlov as the people who made this decision. Lev Davidovich writes that in the conditions of the approach of the Czechoslovak detachments, Stalin's phrase that "the tsar cannot be handed over to the White Guards" became a death sentence.

But scientists doubt the exact reflection of events in the notes. They were made in the late thirties, when he was working on a biography of Stalin. A number of errors were made there, indicating that Trotsky forgot many of those events.

The second evidence is information from Milyutin's diary, which mentions the murder of the royal family. He writes that Sverdlov came to the meeting and asked Lenin to speak. As soon as Yakov Mikhailovich said that the tsar was gone, Vladimir Ilyich abruptly changed the subject and continued the meeting, as if the previous phrase had not happened.

The most complete history of the royal family in last days life was restored according to the protocols of interrogations of participants in these events. People from the guard, punitive and funeral squads testified several times.

Although they are often confused, the main idea remains the same. All the Bolsheviks who were next to the tsar in recent months had claims against him. Someone in the past was in prison himself, someone has relatives. In general, they gathered a contingent of former prisoners.

In Yekaterinburg, anarchists and socialist-revolutionaries put pressure on the Bolsheviks. In order not to lose credibility, the local council decided to quickly put an end to this matter. Moreover, there was a rumor that Lenin wanted to exchange the royal family for a reduction in the amount of indemnity.

According to the participants, it was the only solution. In addition, many of them boasted during interrogations that they personally killed the emperor. Who with one, and who with three shots. Judging by the diaries of Nikolai and his wife, the workers guarding them were often drunk. Therefore, real events cannot be reconstructed for certain.

What happened to the remains

The murder of the royal family took place in secret, and they planned to keep it a secret. But those responsible for the liquidation of the remains did not cope with their task.

A very large funeral team was assembled. Yurovsky had to send many back to the city "as unnecessary."

According to the testimonies of the participants in the process, they were busy with the task for several days. At first, it was planned to burn the clothes, and throw the naked bodies into the mine and cover them with earth. But the crash didn't work. I had to remove the remains of the royal family and come up with another way.

It was decided to burn them or bury them along the road, which was just being built. Previously, it was planned to disfigure the bodies with sulfuric acid beyond recognition. It is clear from the protocols that two corpses were burned, and the rest were buried.

Presumably, the body of Alexei and one girl from the servant burned down.

The second difficulty was that the team was busy all night, and in the morning travelers began to appear. An order was given to cordon off the place and forbid leaving the neighboring village. But the secrecy of the operation was hopelessly failed.

The investigation showed that attempts to bury the bodies were near the mine number 7 and the 184th crossing. In particular, they were discovered near the latter in 1991.

Kirsta investigation

On July 26-27, 1918, peasants discovered in a fire pit near the Isetsky mine a golden cross with precious stones. The discovery was immediately delivered to Lieutenant Sheremetyev, who was hiding from the Bolsheviks in the village of Koptyaki. It was carried out, but later the case was assigned to Kirsta.

He began to study the testimony of witnesses who pointed to the murder of the royal Romanov family. The information confused and frightened him. The investigator did not expect that these were not the consequences of a military court, but a criminal case.

He began to interrogate witnesses who gave contradictory testimonies. But on their basis, Kirsta concluded that perhaps only the emperor and his heir were shot. The rest of the family was taken to Perm.

One gets the impression that this investigator set himself the goal of proving that not the entire Romanov royal family was killed. Even after he explicitly confirmed the fact of the crime, Kirsta continued to interrogate new people.

So, over time, he finds a certain doctor Utochkin, who proved that he treated Princess Anastasia. Then another witness spoke of the transfer of the emperor's wife and some of the children to Perm, which she knew about from rumors.

After Kirsta finally confused the case, it was given to another investigator.

Sokolov's investigation

Kolchak, who came to power in 1919, ordered Dieterichs to figure out how the Romanov royal family was killed. The latter entrusted this case to the investigator for especially important cases of the Omsk District.

His last name was Sokolov. This man began to investigate the murder of the royal family from scratch. Although he was given all the paperwork, he did not trust Kirsta's confusing protocols.

Sokolov again visited the mine, as well as the Ipatiev mansion. Inspection of the house was hampered by the presence of the headquarters of the Czech army there. Nevertheless, a German inscription on the wall was discovered, a quotation from Heine's verse that the monarch was killed by subjects. The words were clearly scratched out after the loss of the city by the Reds.

In addition to documents on Yekaterinburg, the investigator was sent files on the murder of Prince Mikhail in Perm and on the crime against the princes in Alapaevsk.

After the Bolsheviks recapture this region, Sokolov takes out all the paperwork to Harbin, and then to Western Europe. Photos of the royal family, diaries, evidence, and so on were evacuated.

He published the results of the investigation in 1924 in Paris. In 1997, Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, transferred all office work to the Russian government. In return, he was delivered the archives of his family, taken out during the Second World War.

Modern Investigation

In 1979, a group of enthusiasts led by Ryabov and Avdonin, according to archival documents, discovered a burial near the 184 km station. In 1991, the latter declared that he knew where the remains of the executed emperor were. An investigation was reopened to finally shed light on the murder of the royal family.

The main work on this case was carried out in the archives of the two capitals and in the cities that appeared in the reports of the twenties. Protocols, letters, telegrams, photos of the royal family and their diaries were studied. In addition, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, research was carried out in the archives of most countries Western Europe and USA.

The study of the burial was carried out by the senior prosecutor-criminalist Solovyov. On the whole, he confirmed all of Sokolov's materials. His message to Patriarch Alexei II states that "under the conditions of that time, it was impossible to completely destroy the corpses."

In addition, the investigation of the late 20th - early 21st century completely refuted the alternative versions of events, which we will discuss later.
The canonization of the royal family was carried out in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and in Russia in 2000.

Since the Bolsheviks tried to classify this crime, rumors spread that contributed to the formation of alternative versions.

So, according to one of them, it was a ritual murder due to a conspiracy of the Jewish Masons. One of the investigator's assistants testified that he saw "kabbalistic symbols" on the basement walls. When checked, it turned out to be traces of bullets and bayonets.

According to the theory of Dieterichs, the head of the emperor was cut off and alcoholized. The finds of the remains disproved this crazy idea.

Rumors spread by the Bolsheviks and false testimonies of "eyewitnesses" gave rise to a series of versions about people who escaped. But photographs of the royal family in the last days of their lives do not confirm them. As well as the found and identified remains refute these versions.

Only after all the facts of this crime were proven, the canonization of the royal family took place in Russia. This explains why it was held 19 years later than abroad.

So, in this article, we got acquainted with the circumstances and investigation of one of the worst atrocities in the history of Russia in the twentieth century.

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

Commissioner A. D. Avdeev was appointed the first commandant of the House of Special Purpose.

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 future fate 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 Uralsovet asked once again to confirm this in writing earlier. decision, referring to "military circumstances", as 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.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, the heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as the life medical doctor Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexei Trupp, room girl Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov.

The last Russian emperor, Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II), ascended the throne in 1894 after the death of his father, Emperor Alexander III, and ruled until 1917, when the situation in the country became more complicated. On March 12 (February 27, old style), 1917, an armed uprising began in Petrograd, and on March 15 (March 2, old style), 1917, at the insistence of the Provisional Committee State Duma Nicholas II signed the abdication of the throne for himself and his son Alexei in favor of his younger brother Mikhail Alexandrovich.

After his abdication from March to August 1917, Nikolai and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. A special commission of the Provisional Government studied materials for the possible trial of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on charges of treason. Not finding evidence and documents that clearly denounced them in this, the Provisional Government was inclined to deport them abroad (to Great Britain).

In August 1917, the arrested were transferred to Tobolsk. The main idea of ​​the Bolshevik leadership was an open trial of the former emperor. In April 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the Romanovs to Moscow. For judgment on former king Vladimir Lenin spoke out, it was supposed to make Leon Trotsky the main accuser of Nicholas II. However, information appeared about the existence of "White Guard conspiracies" to kidnap the tsar, the concentration of "officers-conspirators" for this purpose in Tyumen and Tobolsk, and on April 6, 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the royal family to the Urals. The royal family was moved to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Ipatiev house.

The uprising of the White Czechs and the offensive of the White Guard troops on Yekaterinburg accelerated the decision to execute the former tsar.

It was entrusted to the commandant of the House of Special Purpose Yakov Yurovsky to organize the execution of all members of the royal family, Dr. Botkin and the servants who were in the house.

© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg

The execution scene is known from investigative protocols, from the words of participants and eyewitnesses, and from the stories of direct perpetrators. Yurovsky spoke about the execution of the royal family in three documents: "Note" (1920); "Memoirs" (1922) and "Speech at a meeting of old Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg" (1934). All the details of this atrocity, transmitted by the main participant at different times and under completely different circumstances, agree on how the royal family and its servants were shot.

According to documentary sources, it is possible to establish the time of the beginning of the murder of Nicholas II, members of his family and their servants. The car that delivered the last order to destroy the family arrived at half past two in the night from July 16 to 17, 1918. After that, the commandant ordered the life doctor Botkin to wake the royal family. It took the family about 40 minutes to get ready, then she and the servants were transferred to the semi-basement of this house, overlooking Voznesensky Lane. Nicholas II carried Tsarevich Alexei in his arms, because he could not walk due to illness. At the request of Alexandra Feodorovna, two chairs were brought into the room. She sat on one, on the other Tsarevich Alexei. The rest lined up along the wall. Yurovsky led the firing squad into the room and read the sentence.

Here is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I suggested that everyone stand up. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies Urala decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: "Shoot." I fired the first shot and killed Nikolai on the spot. The firing lasted a very long time and, despite my hopes that wooden wall will not ricochet, bullets bounced off it. For a long time I could not stop this shooting, which had taken on a careless character. But when I finally managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Dr. Botkin was lying, leaning on his elbow right hand, as if in the pose of a rester, finished him off with a revolver shot. Alexei, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Tov. Ermakov wanted to finish the job with a bayonet. But, however, it did not work. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond shells like bras). I had to shoot each one in turn."

After the statement of death, all the corpses began to be transferred to the truck. At the beginning of the fourth hour, at dawn, the corpses of the dead were taken out of the Ipatiev house.

The remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, Olga, Tatyana and Anastasia Romanov, as well as those from their entourage, who were shot in the House of Special Purpose (Ipatiev House), were discovered in July 1991 near Yekaterinburg.

On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the royal family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In October 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, who were executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. The servants and close associates of the royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks or were subjected to repression, were rehabilitated.

In January 2009, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation stopped investigating the case on the circumstances of the death and burial of the last Russian emperor, members of his family and people from his entourage, who were shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal liability and death of the persons who committed the deliberate murder" (subparagraphs 3 and 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR).

On January 15, 2009, the investigator issued a decision to dismiss the criminal case, but on August 26, 2010, the judge of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow decided, in accordance with Article 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, to recognize this decision as unfounded and ordered to eliminate the violations committed. On November 25, 2010, the decision of the investigation to dismiss this case was canceled by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee.

On January 14, 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced that the decision was brought in accordance with the court decision and the criminal case on the death of representatives of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in 1918-1919 was terminated. Identification of the remains of members of the family of the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II (Romanov) and persons from his retinue has been confirmed.

On October 27, 2011, the decision to close the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family was. The ruling on 800 pages contains the main conclusions of the investigation and indicates the authenticity of the discovered remains of the royal family.

However, the question of authentication still remains open. The Russian Orthodox Church, in order to recognize the found remains as the relics of the royal martyrs, the Russian Imperial House supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in this matter. The director of the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic expertise is not enough.

The Church canonized Nicholas II and his family and on July 17 celebrates the feast day of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources