According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot. After the burial was opened and identified, the remains were reburied in 1998 in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. However, then the ROC did not confirm their authenticity.

“I cannot rule out that the church will recognize the royal remains as genuine if convincing evidence of their authenticity is found and if the examination is open and honest,” said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, in July this year.

As you know, the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the burial of the remains of the royal family in 1998, explaining this by the fact that the church is not sure whether the true remains of the royal family are buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to the book of the Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned.

Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the place of burning are stored in Brussels, in the church of St. Job the Long-suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of the note by Yurovsky, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of the investigator Sokolov). And now, in the upcoming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been instructed to give a final answer to all the dark places of execution near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church, research has been conducted for several years. Once again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and prosecutors are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a dense veil of secrecy.

Research on genetic identification is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the ROC. In early July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents. For example, Sverdlov's order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, according to the results of recent research, forensic experts confirmed that the remains of the king and queen belong to them, since a trace was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a trace from a saber blow he received when visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her by the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins.

Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign's skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of the alleged remains of Nikolai by periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist, whom Nikolai turned to, remained. In addition, the fact that the growth of the skeleton of "Princess Anastasia" is 13 centimeters larger than her lifetime growth has not yet been found. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church ... Shevkunov did not say a word about the genetic examination, and this despite the fact that the genetic studies of 2003, conducted by Russian and American specialists, showed that the genome of the body of the alleged empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna do not match , which means no relationship

In addition, in the museum of the city of Otsu (Japan) there are things left after the injury of the policeman Nicholas II. They have biological material that can be examined. According to them, Japanese geneticists from the Tatsuo Nagai group proved that the DNA of the remains of "Nicholas II" from near Yekaterinburg (and his family) does not 100% match the DNA of biomaterials from Japan. During the Russian DNA examination, second cousins ​​were compared, and in the conclusion it was written that "there are matches." The Japanese compared relatives of cousins. There are also the results of a genetic examination of the President of the International Association of Forensic Physicians, Mr. Bonte from Dusseldorf, in which he proved that the found remains and twins of the family of Nicholas II Filatov are relatives. Perhaps, from their remains in 1946, the “remains of the royal family” were created? The problem has not been studied.

Earlier, in 1998, the Russian Orthodox Church, on the basis of these conclusions and facts, did not recognize the existing remains as authentic, but what will happen now? In December, all the conclusions of the Investigative Committee and the commission of the Russian Orthodox Church will be considered by the Council of Bishops. It is he who will decide on the attitude of the church to the Yekaterinburg remains. Let's see why everything is so nervous and what is the history of this crime?

Worth the fight for that kind of money

Today, some of the Russian elites have suddenly awakened interest in one very piquant story of relations between Russia and the United States, connected with the Romanov royal family. Briefly, the story is this: more than 100 years ago, in 1913, the United States created the Federal Reserve System (FRS) - the central bank and printing press for the production of international currency, which still operates today. The Fed was created for the emerging League of Nations (now the UN) and would be a single world financial center with its own currency. Russia contributed 48,600 tons of gold to the "authorized capital" of the system. But the Rothschilds demanded that Woodrow Wilson, who was then re-elected as President of the United States, transfer the center to their private property along with gold. The organization became known as the Fed, where Russia owned 88.8%, and 11.2% - 43 international beneficiaries. Receipts stating that 88.8% of gold assets for a period of 99 years are under the control of the Rothschilds, six copies were transferred to the family of Nicholas II.

The annual income on these deposits was fixed at 4%, which was supposed to be transferred to Russia annually, but settled on the X-1786 account of the World Bank and on 300 thousand accounts in 72 international banks. All these documents confirming the right to 48,600 tons of gold pledged to the FRS from Russia, as well as income from leasing it, the mother of Tsar Nicholas II, Maria Fedorovna Romanova, deposited in one of the Swiss banks. But the conditions for access there are only for the heirs, and this access is controlled by the Rothschild clan. For the gold provided by Russia, gold certificates were issued that allowed the metal to be claimed in parts - the royal family hid them in different places. Later, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference confirmed Russia's right to 88% of the Fed's assets.

This “golden” issue was once proposed by two well-known Russian oligarchs – Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky. But Yeltsin "did not understand" them, and now, apparently, that very "golden" time has come ... And now this gold is remembered more and more often - though not at the state level.

Some speculate that the surviving Tsarevich Alexei later grew up to be Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin.

For this gold they kill, fight and make fortunes on it

Today's researchers believe that all wars and revolutions in Russia and in the world occurred due to the fact that the Rothschild clan and the United States did not intend to return the gold to the Russian Federal Reserve. After all, the execution of the royal family made it possible for the Rothschild clan not to give away gold and not pay for its 99-year lease. “Now, out of three Russian copies of the agreement on gold invested in the Fed, two are in our country, the third is presumably in one of the Swiss banks,” researcher Sergey Zhilenkov believes. - In the cache, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, there are documents from the royal archive, among which there are 12 "golden" certificates. If they are presented, then the global financial hegemony of the United States and the Rothschilds will simply collapse, and our country will receive a lot of money and all the opportunities for development, since it will no longer be strangled from across the ocean, ”the historian is sure.

Many wanted to close questions about royal assets with the reburial. Professor Vladlen Sirotkin also has an estimate for the so-called military gold exported to the West and East during the First World War and the Civil War: Japan - 80 billion dollars, Great Britain - 50 billion, France - 25 billion, USA - 23 billion, Sweden - 5 billion, the Czech Republic - $1 billion. Total - 184 billion. Surprisingly, officials in the US and UK, for example, do not dispute these figures, but are surprised at the lack of requests from Russia. By the way, the Bolsheviks remembered Russian assets in the West in the early 20s. Back in 1923, People's Commissar for Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin ordered a British law firm to evaluate Russian real estate and cash deposits abroad. By 1993, the firm reported that it had amassed a $400 billion data bank! And this is legal Russian money.

Why did the Romanovs die? Britain did not accept them!

There is a long-term study, unfortunately, by Professor Vladlen Sirotkin (MGIMO), who has already passed away, “Foreign Gold of Russia” (M., 2000), where the gold and other holdings of the Romanov family accumulated in the accounts of Western banks are also estimated at no less than 400 billion dollars, and together with investments - more than 2 trillion dollars! In the absence of Romanov heirs, the closest relatives turn out to be members of the English royal family... These are the interests of which may be the background of many events of the 19th-21st centuries...

By the way, it is not clear (or, on the contrary, it is understandable) for what reasons the royal house of England denied asylum three times to the Romanov family. The first time in 1916, at the apartment of Maxim Gorky, an escape was planned - the rescue of the Romanovs by abduction and the internment of the royal couple during their visit to an English warship, then sent to Great Britain. The second was Kerensky's request, which was also rejected. Then they did not accept the request of the Bolsheviks. And this despite the fact that the mothers of George V and Nicholas II were sisters. In the surviving correspondence, Nicholas II and George V call each other "Cousin Nicky" and "Cousin Georgie" - they were cousins ​​with an age difference of less than three years, and in their youth these guys spent a lot of time together and were very similar in appearance. As for the queen, her mother, Princess Alice, was the eldest and beloved daughter of the English Queen Victoria. At that time, 440 tons of gold from the gold reserves of Russia and 5.5 tons of personal gold of Nicholas II were in England as collateral for military loans. Now think about it: if the royal family died, then to whom would the gold go? Close relatives! Isn't that the reason why Cousin Georgie was denied admission to Cousin Nicky's family? To get gold, its owners had to die. Officially. And now all this must be connected with the burial of the royal family, which will officially testify that the owners of untold wealth are dead.

Versions of life after death

All versions of the death of the royal family that exist today can be divided into three. The first version: the royal family was shot near Yekaterinburg, and their remains, with the exception of Alexei and Maria, were reburied in St. Petersburg. The remains of these children were found in 2007, all examinations were carried out on them, and they, apparently, will be buried on the day of the 100th anniversary of the tragedy. When confirming this version, it is necessary for accuracy to once again identify all the remains and repeat all examinations, especially genetic and pathological anatomical ones. The second version: the royal family was not shot, but was scattered throughout Russia and all family members died of natural causes, having lived their lives in Russia or abroad, in Yekaterinburg, a family of twins was shot (members of the same family or people from different families, but similar members of the emperor's family). Nicholas II had twins after Bloody Sunday 1905. When leaving the palace, three carriages left. In which of them Nicholas II sat is unknown. The Bolsheviks, having seized the archive of the 3rd department in 1917, had these twins. There is an assumption that one of the families of twins - the Filatovs, who are distantly related to the Romanovs - followed them to Tobolsk. The third version: the secret services added false remains to the burial places of members of the royal family as they died naturally or before opening the grave. For this, it is necessary to carefully track, among other things, the age of the biomaterial.

Here is one of the versions of the historian of the royal family, Sergei Zhelenkov, which seems to us the most logical, although very unusual.

Before investigator Sokolov, the only investigator who published a book about the execution of the royal family, worked investigators Malinovsky, Nametkin (his archive was burned along with his house), Sergeev (dismissed from the case and killed), Lieutenant General Diterikhs, Kirsta. All these investigators concluded that the royal family was not killed. Neither the Reds nor the Whites wanted to disclose this information - they understood that the American bankers were primarily interested in obtaining objective information. The Bolsheviks were interested in the money of the king, and Kolchak declared himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia, which could not be with a living sovereign.

Investigator Sokolov conducted two cases - one on the fact of the murder and the other on the fact of the disappearance. In parallel, military intelligence in the person of Kirst conducted an investigation. When the whites left Russia, Sokolov, fearing for the collected materials, sent them to Harbin - some of his materials were lost along the way. Sokolov's materials contained evidence of the financing of the Russian revolution by the American bankers Schiff, Kuhn and Loeb, and Ford became interested in these materials, in conflict with these bankers. He even called Sokolov from France, where he settled, to the USA. When returning from the USA to France, Nikolai Sokolov was killed.

Sokolov's book came out after his death, and many people "worked" on it, removing many scandalous facts from there, so it cannot be considered completely truthful. The surviving members of the royal family were watched by people from the KGB, where a special department was created for this, which was dissolved during perestroika. The archive of this department has been preserved. The royal family was saved by Stalin - the royal family was evacuated from Yekaterinburg through Perm to Moscow and fell into the hands of Trotsky, then People's Commissar of Defense. To further save the royal family, Stalin carried out a whole operation, stealing it from Trotsky's people and taking them to Sukhumi, to a specially built house next to the former house of the royal family. From there, all family members were distributed to different places, Maria and Anastasia were taken to the Glinsk desert (Sumy region), then Maria was transported to the Nizhny Novgorod region, where she died of illness on May 24, 1954. Anastasia subsequently married Stalin's personal bodyguard and lived very secluded on a small farm, died on June 27, 1980 in the Volgograd region.

The eldest daughters, Olga and Tatyana, were sent to the Serafimo-Diveevsky convent - the empress was settled not far from the girls. But they did not live here for long. Olga, having traveled through Afghanistan, Europe and Finland, settled in Vyritsa, Leningrad Region, where she died on January 19, 1976. Tatyana lived partly in Georgia, partly in the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, was buried in the Krasnodar Territory, died on September 21, 1992. Alexei and his mother lived in their dacha, then Alexei was transferred to Leningrad, where he was "made" a biography, and the whole world recognized him as a party and Soviet leader Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin (Stalin sometimes called him a prince in front of everyone). Nicholas II lived and died in Nizhny Novgorod (December 22, 1958), and the tsarina died in the village of Starobelskaya, Lugansk region, on April 2, 1948, and was subsequently reburied in Nizhny Novgorod, where she and the emperor share a common grave. Three daughters of Nicholas II, except for Olga, had children. N.A. Romanov talked with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR ...

Yakov Tudorovsky

Yakov Tudorovsky

The Romanovs were not shot

According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot. After the burial was opened and identified, the remains were reburied in 1998 in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. However, then the ROC did not confirm their authenticity. “I cannot rule out that the church will recognize the royal remains as genuine if convincing evidence of their authenticity is found and if the examination is open and honest,” said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, in July this year. As you know, the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the burial of the remains of the royal family in 1998, explaining this by the fact that the church is not sure whether the true remains of the royal family are buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to the book of the Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned. Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the place of burning are stored in Brussels, in the church of St. Job the Long-suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of the note by Yurovsky, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of the investigator Sokolov). And now, in the upcoming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been instructed to give a final answer to all the dark places of execution near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church, research has been conducted for several years. Once again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and prosecutors are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a dense veil of secrecy. Research on genetic identification is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the ROC. At the beginning of July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents were discovered. For example, Sverdlov's order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, according to the results of recent research, forensic experts confirmed that the remains of the king and queen belong to them, since a trace was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a trace from a saber blow he received when visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her by the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins. Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign's skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of the alleged remains of Nikolai by periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist, whom Nikolai turned to, remained. In addition, the fact that the growth of the skeleton of "Princess Anastasia" is 13 centimeters larger than her lifetime growth has not yet been found. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church ... Shevkunov did not say a word about the genetic examination, and this despite the fact that the genetic studies of 2003, conducted by Russian and American specialists, showed that the genome of the body of the alleged empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna do not match , which means no relationship.

The Romanov family was numerous, there were no problems with the successors to the throne. In 1918, after the Bolsheviks shot the emperor, his wife and children, a large number of impostors appeared. Rumors spread that on that very night in Yekaterinburg, one of them still survived.

And today, many believe that one of the children could be saved and that their offspring can live among us.

After the massacre of the imperial family, many believed that Anastasia managed to escape

Anastasia was the youngest daughter of Nicholas. In 1918, when the Romanovs were shot, the remains of Anastasia were not found in the family's burial place and rumors spread that the young princess had survived.

People around the world have reincarnated as Anastasia. One of the most prominent imposters was Anna Anderson. She seems to be from Poland.

Anna imitated Anastasia in her behavior, and rumors that Anastasia was alive spread quickly enough. Many also tried to imitate her sisters and brother. People around the world tried to cheat, but most of the doubles were in Russia.

Many believed that the children of Nicholas II survived. But even after the burial of the Romanov family was found, scientists could not identify the remains of Anastasia. Most historians still cannot confirm that the Bolsheviks killed Anastasia.

Later, a secret burial was found, in which the remains of the young princess were found, and forensic experts were able to prove that she died along with the rest of the family in 1918. Her remains were reburied in 1998.

Scientists were able to compare the DNA of the found remains and modern followers of the royal family

Many people believed that the Bolsheviks buried the Romanovs in various places in the Sverdlovsk region. In addition, many were convinced that two of the children were able to escape.

There was a theory that Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria were able to escape from the place of the terrible execution. In 1976, scientists attacked the trail with the remains of the Romanovs. In 1991, when the era of communism was over, the researchers were able to obtain government permission to open the burial of the Romanovs, the same one left by the Bolsheviks.

But scientists needed DNA analysis to confirm the theory. They asked Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent to provide DNA samples for comparison with those of the royal couple. Forensic experts confirmed that the DNA does indeed belong to the Romanovs. As a result of this study, it was possible to confirm that the Bolsheviks buried Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria separately from the rest.

Some people devoted their free time to searching for traces of the real burial place of the family.

In 2007, Sergei Plotnikov, one of the founders of the amateur historical group, made an amazing discovery. His group was looking for any facts related to the royal family.

In his spare time, Sergei was engaged in searching for the remains of the Romanovs in the alleged place of the first burial. And one day he was lucky, he stumbled upon something solid and began to dig.

To his surprise, he found several fragments of the bones of the pelvis and skull. After the examination, it was found that these bones belong to the children of Nicholas II.

Few people know that the methods of killing family members differed from each other.

After an analysis of the bones of Alexei and Mary, it was found that the bones were badly damaged, but in a different way than the bones of the emperor himself.

Traces of bullets were found on the remains of Nikolai, which means that the children were killed in a different way. The rest of the family also suffered in their own way.

Scientists managed to establish that Alexei and Maria were doused with acid, and they died from burns. Despite the fact that these two children were buried separately from the rest of the family, they suffered no less.

There was a lot of confusion around the bones of the Romanovs, but in the end, scientists still managed to establish their belonging to the family.

Archaeologists found 9 skulls, teeth, bullets of various calibers, fabric from clothes and wires from a wooden box. The remains were found to be those of a boy and a woman, estimated to be between 10 and 23 years old.

The probability that the boy was Tsarevich Alexei, and the girl Princess Maria is quite high. In addition, there were theories that the government managed to find the place where the bones of the Romanovs were stored. There were rumors that the remains were found as early as 1979, but the government kept this information a secret.

One of the research groups was very close to the truth, but they soon ran out of money.

In 1990, another group of archaeologists decided to excavate, hoping that they would be able to find some more traces of the location of the remains of the Romanovs.

After a few days or even weeks, they dug up a field the size of a football field, but never completed the study, as they ran out of money. Surprisingly, Sergei Plotnikov found bone fragments in this very area.

Due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church demanded more and more confirmation of the authenticity of the bones of the Romanovs, the reburial was postponed several times

The Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the fact that the bones really belonged to the Romanov family. The Church demanded more evidence that these very remains were indeed found in the burial of the royal family in Yekaterinburg.

The successors of the Romanov family supported the Russian Orthodox Church, demanding additional research and confirmation that the bones really belong to the children of Nicholas II.

The reburial of the family was postponed many times, as the ROC each time questioned the correctness of the DNA analysis and the belonging of the bones to the Romanov family. The church asked forensic experts to conduct additional examination. After scientists finally managed to convince the church that the remains really belonged to the royal family, the Russian Orthodox Church planned a reburial.

The Bolsheviks eliminated the main part of the imperial family, but their distant relatives are still alive

The successors of the family tree of the Romanov dynasty live among us. One of the heirs of royal genes is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and he provided his DNA for research. Prince Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, grand-niece of Princess Alexandra, and great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.

Another relative who helped with DNA identification is Prince Michael of Kent. His grandmother was a cousin of Nicholas II.

There are eight more successors of this family: Hugh Grosvenor, Constantine II, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, Olga Andreevna Romanova, Francis Alexander Matthew, Nicoletta Romanova, Rostislav Romanov. But these relatives did not provide their DNA for analysis, as Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent were recognized as the closest relatives.

Of course the Bolsheviks tried to cover up the traces of their crime

The Bolsheviks executed the royal family in Yekaterinburg, and they had to somehow hide the evidence of the crime.

There are two theories about how the Bolsheviks killed children. According to the first version, they first shot Nikolai, and then put his daughters in the mine, where no one could find them. The Bolsheviks tried to blow up the mine, but their plan failed, so they decided to douse the children with acid and burn them.

According to the second version, the Bolsheviks wanted to cremate the bodies of the murdered Alexei and Maria. After several studies, scientists and forensic experts concluded that the cremation of the bodies did not work.

To cremate a human body, you need a very high temperature, and the Bolsheviks were in the forest, and they did not have the opportunity to create the necessary conditions. After unsuccessful attempts at cremation, they nevertheless decided to bury the bodies, but divided the family into two graves.

The fact that the family was not buried together explains why not all family members were initially discovered. This also refutes the theory that Alexei and Maria managed to escape.

By decision of the Russian Orthodox Church, the remains of the Romanovs were buried in one of the churches of St. Petersburg

The secret of the Romanov dynasty rests with their remains in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. After numerous studies, scientists still agreed that the remains belong to Nicholas and his family.

The last farewell ceremony took place in the Orthodox Church and lasted three days. During the funeral procession, many still questioned the authenticity of the remains. But scientists claim that the bones are 97% identical to the DNA of members of the royal family.

In Russia, this ceremony was given special significance. Residents of fifty countries around the world watched the Romanov family go to rest. It took more than 80 years to debunk the myths about the family of the last emperor of the Russian Empire. Together with the completion of the funeral procession, an entire era has gone into the past.

Almost a hundred years have passed since that terrible night when the Russian Empire ceased to exist forever. Until now, none of the historians can state unequivocally what happened that night and whether any of the family members survived. Most likely, the secret of this family will remain undisclosed, and we can only assume what really happened.

"The world will never know what we did to them," boasted one of the executioners, Petr Voikov. But it turned out differently. Over the next 100 years, the truth found its way, and today a majestic temple has been built on the site of the murder.

About the causes and main characters of the murder of the royal family tells Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Lavrov.

Maria Pozdnyakova,« AiF”: It is known that the Bolsheviks were going to hold a trial of Nicholas II, but then abandoned this idea. Why?

Vladimir Lavrov: Indeed, the Soviet government, headed by Lenin in January 1918 announced that the trial of the former emperor Nicholas II will be. It was assumed that the main charge would be Bloody Sunday - January 9, 1905. However, Lenin in the end could not help but realize that this tragedy did not guarantee a death sentence. Firstly, Nicholas II did not order the execution of workers, he was not in St. Petersburg at all that day. And secondly, by that time the Bolsheviks themselves had stained themselves with “Bloody Friday”: on January 5, 1918, thousands of peaceful demonstrations in support of the Constituent Assembly were shot in Petrograd. Moreover, they were shot at the same places where people died on Bloody Sunday. How then to throw in the face of the king that he is bloody? And Lenin with Dzerzhinsky then what?

But let's assume that any head of state can find fault. But what is the fault Alexandra Fedorovna? Is that the wife? And why judge the children of the sovereign? Women and a teenager would have to be released from custody right there, in the courtroom, recognizing that the Soviet government repressed the innocent.

In March 1918, the Bolsheviks concluded a separate Brest Peace with the German aggressors. The Bolsheviks gave Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, pledged to demobilize the army and navy and pay an indemnity in gold. Nicholas II at a public trial after such a peace could turn from an accused into an accuser, qualifying the actions of the Bolsheviks themselves as treason. In a word, Lenin did not dare to sue Nicholas II.

Izvestia of July 19, 1918 opened with this publication. Photo: Public Domain

- In Soviet times, the execution of the royal family was presented as an initiative of the Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks. But who is really responsible for this crime?

— In the 1960s. former bodyguard of Lenin Akimov said that he personally sent a telegram from Vladimir Ilyich to Yekaterinburg with a direct order to shoot the tsar. This testimony confirmed the memories Yurovsky, commandant of the Ipatiev House, and the head of his security Ermakova, who previously admitted that they had received a firing telegram from Moscow.

Also revealed was the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) of May 19, 1918 with the order Yakov Sverdlov deal with the work of Nicholas II. Therefore, the tsar and his family were sent specifically to Yekaterinburg, Sverdlov's fiefdom, where all his friends from underground work in pre-revolutionary Russia were. On the eve of the massacre, one of the leaders of the Yekaterinburg communists Goloshchekin came to Moscow, lived in Sverdlov's apartment, received instructions from him.

The day after the massacre, on July 18, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced that Nicholas II had been shot, and his wife and children had been evacuated to a safe place. That is, Sverdlov and Lenin deceived the Soviet people, declaring that their spouse and children were alive. They deceived because they perfectly understood: in the eyes of the public, killing innocent women and a 13-year-old boy is a terrible crime.

- There is a version that the family was killed because of the offensive of the whites. Like, the Whites could return the Romanovs to the throne.

- None of the leaders of the white movement was going to restore the monarchy in Russia. In addition, the offensive of the whites was not lightning fast. The Bolsheviks themselves perfectly evacuated themselves and seized property. So it was not difficult to take out the royal family.

The real reason for the destruction of the family of Nicholas II is different: they were a living symbol of the great thousand-year-old Orthodox Russia, which Lenin hated. In addition, in June-July 1918, a large-scale Civil War broke out in the country. Lenin had to rally his party. The murder of the royal family was a demonstration that the Rubicon had been passed: either we win at any cost, or we will have to answer for everything.

- Did the royal family have a chance for salvation?

“Yes, if their English relatives had not betrayed them. In March 1917, when the family of Nicholas II was under arrest in Tsarskoye Selo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government Milyukov offered the option of her going to the UK. Nicholas II agreed to leave. BUT George V, the English king and at the same time cousin of Nicholas II, agreed to accept the Romanov family. But a few days later, George V took his royal word back. Although in letters George V swore to Nicholas II in his friendship until the end of days! The British betrayed not just the king of a foreign power - they betrayed their close relatives, Alexandra Fedorovna - the beloved granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. But George V, also a grandson of Victoria, obviously did not want Nicholas II to remain a living center of attraction for Russian patriotic forces. The revival of a strong Russia was not in the interests of Great Britain. And the family of Nicholas II had no other options to escape.

- Did the royal family understand that its days were numbered?

- Yes. Even the children knew that death was coming. Alexei once said: “If they kill, then at least they don’t torture.” As if he had a presentiment that death at the hands of the Bolsheviks would be painful. But even in the revelations of the killers, not the whole truth is told. No wonder the regicide Voikov said: "The world will never know what we did to them."

First, the Provisional Government agrees to fulfill all conditions. But already on March 8, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseev informs the tsar that he "may consider himself, as it were, under arrest." After some time, from London, which had previously agreed to accept the Romanov family, a notification of refusal comes. On March 21, former Emperor Nicholas II and his entire family were officially taken into custody.

A little more than a year later, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family of the Russian Empire will be shot in a cramped basement in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were subjected to hardships, getting closer and closer to their gloomy finale. Let's look at rare photos of members of Russia's last royal family, taken some time before the execution.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the last royal family of Russia, by decision of the Provisional Government, was sent to the Siberian city of Tobolsk to protect them from the wrath of the people. A few months earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated, bringing to an end more than three hundred years of the Romanov dynasty.

The Romanovs began their five-day journey to Siberia in August, on the eve of Tsarevich Alexei's 13th birthday. The seven members of the family were joined by 46 servants and a military escort. The day before reaching their destination, the Romanovs sailed past Rasputin's home village, whose eccentric influence on politics may have contributed to their gloomy end.

The family arrived in Tobolsk on August 19 and began living in relative comfort on the banks of the Irtysh River. In the Governor's Palace, where they were placed, the Romanovs were well fed, and they could communicate a lot with each other, without being distracted by state affairs and official events. The children put on plays for their parents, and the family often went to the city for religious services - this was the only form of freedom allowed to them.

When the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of 1917, the regime of the royal family slowly but surely began to tighten. The Romanovs were forbidden to visit the church and generally leave the territory of the mansion. Soon coffee, sugar, butter and cream disappeared from their kitchen, and the soldiers assigned to protect them wrote obscene and offensive words on the walls and fences of their dwelling.

Things went from bad to worse. In April 1918, a commissar, a certain Yakovlev, arrived with an order to transport the former tsar from Tobolsk. The empress was adamant in her desire to accompany her husband, but Comrade Yakovlev had other orders that complicated everything. At this time, Tsarevich Alexei, suffering from hemophilia, began to suffer from paralysis of both legs due to a bruise, and everyone expected that he would be left in Tobolsk, and the family would be divided during the war.

The commissar's demands for the move were adamant, so Nikolai, his wife Alexandra and one of their daughters, Maria, soon left Tobolsk. They eventually boarded a train to travel via Yekaterinburg to Moscow, where the headquarters of the Red Army was located. However, Commissar Yakovlev was arrested for trying to save the royal family, and the Romanovs got off the train in Yekaterinburg, in the heart of the territory captured by the Bolsheviks.

In Yekaterinburg, the rest of the children joined their parents - they were all locked in the Ipatiev house. The family was placed on the second floor and completely cut off from the outside world, boarding up the windows and placing guards at the doors. The Romanovs were allowed to go out into the fresh air for only five minutes a day.

In early July 1918, the Soviet authorities began to prepare for the execution of the royal family. Ordinary soldiers on guard were replaced by representatives of the Cheka, and the Romanovs were allowed to go to worship for the last time. The priest who conducted the service later admitted that none of the family spoke a word during the service. For July 16 - the day of the murder - five truckloads of barrels of benzidine and acid were ordered to quickly dispose of the bodies.

Early in the morning of July 17, the Romanovs were gathered and told about the advance of the White Army. The family believed that they were simply being transferred to a small lighted basement for their own protection, because soon it would not be safe here. Approaching the place of execution, the last tsar of Russia passed by trucks, one of which will soon contain his body, not even suspecting what a terrible fate awaits his wife and children.

In the basement, Nikolai was told that he was about to be executed. Not believing his own ears, he asked again: "What?" - immediately after which the Chekist Yakov Yurovsky shot the tsar. Another 11 people pulled their triggers, flooding the basement with the blood of the Romanovs. Aleksey survived after the first shot, but Yurovsky's second shot finished him off. The next day, the bodies of members of the last royal family of Russia were burned 19 km from Yekaterinburg, in the village of Koptyaki.

One of the most interesting historical topics for me is the high-profile murders of famous personalities. In almost all these murders and the investigations that were then carried out, there are many incomprehensible, contradictory facts. Often the killer was not found, or only the perpetrator, the scapegoat, was found. The main characters, motives and circumstances of these crimes remained behind the scenes and made it possible for historians to put forward hundreds of different hypotheses, constantly interpret known evidence in a new and different way and write interesting books that I love so much.

In the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, there are more secrets and inconsistencies than the years of the regime, which approved this execution and then carefully concealed its details. In this article, I will only give a few facts that prove that Nicholas II was not killed on that summer day. Although, I assure you, there are many more of them and still many professional historians do not agree with the official statement that the remains of the entire royal family were found, identified and buried.

I will very briefly remind you of the circumstances as a result of which Nicholas II and his family found themselves under the rule of the Bolsheviks and under the threat of execution. For the third year in a row, Russia was drawn into the war, the economy was in decline, and popular anger was fueled by scandals related to the tricks of Rasputin and the German origin of the emperor's wife. Unrest begins in Petrograd.

Nicholas II at that time was going to Tsarskoe Selo, because of the riots, he was forced to make a detour through the Dno station and Pskov. It is in Pskov that the tsar receives telegrams with requests from the commanders-in-chief to abdicate and signs two manifestos that legitimize his abdication. After this turning point for the empire and for his own event, Nikolai lives for some time under the protection of the Provisional Government, then falls into the hands of the Bolsheviks and dies in the basement of the Ipatiev house in July 1918 ... Or not? Let's look at the facts.

Fact number 1. Contradictory, and in some places simply fabulous testimonies of the participants in the execution.

For example, the commandant of the Ipatiev house and the leader of the execution, Ya.M. Yurovsky, in his note, compiled for the historian Pokrovsky, claims that during the execution, the bullets ricocheted off the victims and flew around the room in a hail, as the women sewed precious stones into their corsages. How many stones are needed for the corsage to provide the same protection as cast chain mail ?!

Another alleged participant in the execution, M.A. Medvedev, recalled not only a hail of ricochets, but also stone pillars that came from nowhere in a room in the basement, as well as a powder fog, because of which the executioners almost shot each other! And this, given that smokeless powder was invented more than thirty years before the events described.

Another killer, Pyotr Ermakov, argued that he single-handedly shot all the Romanovs and their servants.

The same room in the Ipatiev house, where, according to both the Bolsheviks and the chief White Guard investigators, the family of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov was shot. It is quite possible that completely different people were shot here. More on this in future articles.

Fact number 2. There is a lot of evidence that the whole family of Nicholas II or one of its members were alive after the day of execution.

The railway conductor Samoilov, who lived in the apartment of one of the tsar's guards, Alexander Varakushev, assured the White Guards interrogating him that Nicholas II and his wife were alive on the morning of July 17. Varakushev convinced Samoilov that he saw them after the "execution" at the railway station. Samoilov himself saw only a mysterious car, the windows of which were painted over with black paint.

There are documented testimonies of Captain Malinovsky and several other witnesses who heard from the Bolsheviks themselves (in particular from Commissar Goloshchekin) that only the tsar was shot, the rest of the family was simply taken out (most likely to Perm).

The same "Anastasia", which had a striking resemblance to one of the daughters of Nicholas II. It is worth noting, however, that there were many facts indicating that she was an impostor, for example, she knew almost no Russian.

There is a lot of evidence that Anastasia, one of the Grand Duchesses, escaped execution, managed to escape from prison and ended up in Germany. For example, the children of the court physician Botkin recognized her. She knew many details from the life of the imperial family, which were later confirmed. And most importantly, an examination was carried out and the similarity of the structure of her auricle with Anastasia's shell was established (after all, photographs and even videotapes depicting this daughter of Nikolai were preserved) in 17 parameters (according to German law, only 12 is enough).

The whole world (at least the world of historians) knows about the note of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou, which was made public only after her death. In it, she claimed that she was Mary, the daughter of the last Russian emperor, and that the death of the royal family was an invention of the Bolsheviks. Nicholas II accepted certain conditions of his enemies and saved the family (although later it was separated). The story of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou is confirmed by documents from the archives of the Vatican and Germany.

Fact number 3. The king's life was more profitable than death.

On the one hand, the masses demanded the execution of the tsar and, as you know, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate much with executions. But the execution of the royal family is not an execution, it is necessary to sentence to execution, to hold a trial. Here there was a murder without trial (at least formal, indicative) and investigation. And even if the former autocrat was still killed, why didn’t they show the corpse, didn’t prove to the people that they fulfilled his desire.

On the one hand, why should the Reds leave Nicholas II alive, he can become the banner of the counter-revolution. On the other hand, the dead are also of little use. And he could, for example, be exchanged alive for freedom for the German communist Karl Liebknecht (according to one version, the Bolsheviks did just that). There is also a version that the Germans, without whom at that time the communists would have had a very hard time, needed the signature of the former tsar on the Brest Treaty and his life as a guarantee of the fulfillment of the contract. They wanted to secure themselves in case the Bolsheviks did not hold on to power.

Also, do not forget that Wilhelm II was the cousin of Nicholas. It is hard to imagine that after almost four years of war, the German Kaiser had some kind of warm feelings towards the Russian Tsar. But some researchers believe that it was the Kaiser who saved the crowned family, since he did not want the death of his relatives, even if they were yesterday's enemies.

Nicholas II with his children. I would like to believe that they all survived that terrible summer night.

I don’t know if this article could convince anyone that the last Russian emperor was not killed in July 1918. But, I hope that many had doubts about this, which prompted them to dig deeper, to consider other evidence that contradicts the official version. You can find much more facts indicating that the official version of the death of Nicholas II is false, for example, in the book of L.M. Sonin "The mystery of the death of the royal family". Most of the material for this article I took from this book.