More than 16 years have passed since the reburial of the royal family in St. Petersburg, but all doubts about the authenticity of the "Ekaterinburg remains" have not been removed.

Discovery of remains

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

However, the next day, almost the entire Verkh-Isetsk knew about what had happened. In addition, according to Medvedev, a member of the firing squad, “the icy water of the mine not only washed away the blood completely, but also froze the bodies so much that they looked like they were alive.” The conspiracy clearly failed.

The remains were promptly reburied. The area was cordoned off, but the truck, having driven only a few kilometers, got stuck in the swampy area of ​​the Porosenkov Log. Without beginning to invent anything, one part of the bodies was buried right under the road, and the other - a little to the side, after filling them with sulfuric acid. Sleepers were placed on top for reliability.

Interestingly, the forensic investigator N. Sokolov, sent by Kolchak in 1919 to search for a burial site, found this place, but he did not think of raising the sleepers. In the area of ​​Ganina Yama, he managed to find only a severed female finger. Nevertheless, the conclusion of the investigator was unequivocal: “Here is all that remains of the August Family. Everything else was destroyed by the Bolsheviks with fire and sulfuric acid.”

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

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

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

Alexei and Maria were discovered only in 2007, guided by a document compiled from the words of the commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yakov Yurovsky. "Yurovsky's note" initially did not inspire much confidence, nevertheless, the place of the second burial was indicated correctly in it.

Falsifications and myths

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

However, P. L. Voikov, in an informal setting, stated more specifically: "the world will never know what we did to the royal family." But later, after the publication in the West of the materials of the Sokolov investigation, the Soviet authorities recognized the fact of the execution of the imperial family.

Falsifications and speculations around the execution of the Romanovs contributed to the spread of enduring myths, among which the myth of the ritual murder and the severed head of Nicholas II, which was in the special storage of the NKVD, was popular. Later, stories about the “miraculous salvation” of the Tsar’s children, Alexei and Anastasia, grew into myths. But all this has remained a myth.

Investigation and expertise

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

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

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

To remove the doubts of skeptics for new examinations, the head of the laboratory of molecular genetics at the University of Massachusetts Evgeny Rogaev (who was insisted on by representatives of the Romanov dynasty), the chief geneticist of the US Army Michael Cobble (who returned the names of the victims of September 11), as well as an employee of the Institute of Forensic Medicine from Austria, Walter Parson.

Comparing the remains from the two burials, the experts once again rechecked the previously obtained data, and also conducted new studies - the previous results were confirmed. Moreover, the “blood-splattered shirt” of Nicholas II (Otsu incident) found in the Hermitage funds fell into the hands of scientists. And again a positive answer: the genotypes of the king "on the blood" and "on the bones" coincided.

Results

The results of the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family refuted some pre-existing assumptions. For example, according to experts, “under the conditions in which the destruction of corpses was carried out, it was impossible to completely destroy the remains using sulfuric acid and combustible materials.”

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

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

TASS-DOSIER. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Ipatiev in Yekaterinburg, Emperor Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov) was shot along with his wife, son and four daughters. Together with them, Dr. Evgeny Botkin, footman Aloisy Trupp, maid Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov were killed. The verdict of the Ural Regional Council to the Romanovs and their associates was announced before the execution by the commandant of the house, Yakov Yurovsky.

In 1979, near Yekaterinburg, in the area of ​​the Old Koptyakovskaya road, the place of the alleged burial of the remains of the executed royal family was discovered, but this fact was not made public. The official opening of the burial ground was carried out only in 1991, the remains of 9 people were found inside. In August 1993, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation opened a case to investigate the death of the Romanov family.

After several genetic examinations conducted in 1993-1997. in England, the USA and Russia, a specially created State Commission stated that the found body fragments most likely belong to members of the royal family and their entourage. However, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria /according to the American version - Anastasia/ were not found.

On February 27, 1998, the government of the Russian Federation decided to bury the remains in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the family burial vault of Russian tsars. However, the Russian Orthodox Church expressed doubt that the body fragments found near Yekaterinburg belonged to members of the royal family, and considered it impossible to participate in the burial ceremony. The Russian Church Abroad also did not accept the version that the remains found belonged to the Romanov family.

On July 17, 1998 in St. Petersburg, in the Catherine's aisle of the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the remains of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, three daughters and four close associates were buried. In accordance with historical tradition, the remains of the abdicated emperor were buried separately from other monarchs. More than 3,000 people, including descendants of the Romanov dynasty, took part in the funeral ceremony.

On August 20, 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia as saints as martyrs. On the site of the Ipatiev House destroyed in September 1977, the Church-on-the-Blood was built in honor of All Saints who shone in the Russian Land, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. The opening and consecration of the temple-monument took place in July 2003.

On July 29, 2007, in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg, on the Old Koptyakovskaya road, a new burial was discovered, in which fragments of the bodies of a child and a young woman were found with signs of violent death, presumably Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria Romanov. Samples of the remains were sent for examination to Russian and foreign laboratories, including the United States and Austria. The research results were delivered to the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. The Russian Orthodox Church again expressed doubts about the belonging of the found fragments of the bodies of the daughter and son of the last Russian tsar. Since 2011, the discovered remains have been kept in the State Archives of the Russian Federation.

On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the members of the royal family as unreasonably repressed and subject to rehabilitation. Thus, the family of the last Russian emperor was rehabilitated.

In January 2009, the investigation into the death of the royal family was terminated "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing to justice and the death of those who committed the deliberate murder." In August 2010, the court upheld the demand of the emperor's descendants and ordered the investigating authorities to change the wording in the criminal case. On November 25, 2010, the decision of the investigation to terminate this criminal case was canceled, and 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 was terminated. Identification of the remains of the family members of the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II ( Romanov) and persons from his retinue in this decision is confirmed.

On July 9, 2015, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the creation of an interdepartmental working group on issues related to the study and reburial of the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria Romanov. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko was appointed head of the group.

On September 11, it was announced that the working group would propose to the government of the Russian Federation to hold a burial ceremony on October 18 in the Catherine's aisle in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

In 1979, a group of enthusiasts discovered the place where the Bolsheviks hid the bodies of Nicholas II of his relatives and servants.

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Almost 100 years ago, on the night of July 16-17, the Bolsheviks shot the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his family and four servants in Yekaterinburg. Since the whites were approaching the city at that moment, the Bolsheviks hurried to cover up the traces of the crime. They took the bodies of the dead outside Yekaterinburg and buried them without leaving any identifying marks. Only a few in the whole country knew exactly where to look for the royal remains. In 1979, a group of six enthusiasts, secretly from the Soviet authorities, found a burial place. One of them is geophysicist Gennady Vasiliev. On the 100th anniversary, the 71-year-old scientist flew from Yaroslavl to Yekaterinburg to once again visit the place where the remains of the Romanovs were found.

"THE PLACE HAS BEEN DESCRIBED IN THE LETTER OF THE KINGSLAUGHTER"

Now the burial place of the royal family is well known - this is Piglet Log on the northern outskirts of Yekaterinburg. Nearby is the village of Shuvakish, and there is a railway nearby. The fact that the remains of the Romanovs were found here is reminiscent of a huge cross and several memorial stones.

“At that time, this place looked different. There was a clean clearing surrounded by trees. There is a swamp and a stream nearby, - recalls Gennady Vasiliev. - I'm not sure that we would have found the Romanovs if there were such thickets as now.

Two people organized the search: Soviet film director Geliy Ryabov and Ural geologist Alexander Avdonin.

“They were very interested in the theme of the Romanovs, and someone once suggested to Helium that the daughter of Yakov Yurovsky, one of the participants in the execution, is still alive,” continues Vasiliev. - Helium visited her in Leningrad, then contacted her brother, from whom he found a note from their father. In it, Yakov Yurovsky described in detail everything that happened in Yekaterinburg in July 1918: from the execution in the Ipatiev house to the burial of the bodies of the Royal Family.

There were also signs in the note of the place where the remains of the Romanovs rested. Geliy Ryabov contacted his geologist friend Alexander Avdonin in Sverdlovsk and asked him to check the place.

- Avdonin and his assistant Mikhail Kochurov walked along the Piglet Log, sticking a probe into the ground, and found sleepers in one place at a depth of 20 centimeters. Everything, as Yurovsky wrote, - says the scientist. – Then it was decided to carry out excavations. Avdonin called me as his student. Geliy Ryabov also arrived. Another guy friend from Moscow, a military pilot, was called in as a labor force. And there were two women with us - the wives of Ryabov and Avdonin. And so, on June 1, 1979, the six of us went to Piglet's Log to dig up the royal bodies.

"WE WERE AFRAID OF BEING LOCKED IN THE CRAZY HOUSE"

The plan was simple: to dig the sleepers out of the ground and see if the remains of the Royal Family really lay under them. Enthusiasts were not going to take out the bones, they just wanted to make sure that they had exactly found the place where the Bolsheviks hid Nicholas II with his relatives and servants.

- We were very afraid. The heyday of Soviet power. If we had found the remains of the Royal Family, we would have witnessed a state crime. After all, Nicholas II was killed without trial or investigation! - explains Gennady Vasiliev. - Geliy Ryabov warned us then: "If someone finds out about what we are doing here, they will not kill us, they will not put us in jail, but they will send us to a madhouse."

So they decided to play it safe and came up with a legend. If someone suddenly found them with shovels over the burial place of the king, amateur archaeologists would report that they were simply looking for metal.

- I then worked at the Ural Geophysical Expedition enterprise and made up a fake production task for myself. I sent myself in search of iron ores in the Shuvakish region, - Gennady Vasiliev laughs. - I took this certificate with me to present to anyone who would be interested, but what is it that we forgot here.

However, the search engines were still afraid that the KGB already knew about their plans. No amount of help would have helped them.

– When we were on the train to the excavation site, everyone was in a state of fear. We constantly looked around, maybe someone who is throwing sidelong glances at us is watching us, ”recalls the man. - Then, when we got to the station, we agreed, everyone goes along the sleepers, and I lag behind and move along the side of the road to the side, and see if there is a “tail” behind us.

Of course, no one followed them. And they did not meet any of the people during the entire excavation, except for the shepherd, who drove the herd of cows past the royal grave.

« WE VORE SILENCE»

We were there at 10:00. They removed the sleepers and began to dig. The soil was wet. The pit was immediately filled with clay slurry, which was up to our ankles, - says Gennady Vasiliev. - I pry something black with a shovel, like a piece of iron. The shape resembles a ball joint from a car. I hit it with a shovel, and instead of ringing, suddenly there is a dull thud. Bone! And immediately the first thought: "We must run away." We did find what we were looking for. Since there is a bone here, it means that the Romanovs were buried here for sure. It was scary that someone would catch us anyway.

But Geliy Ryabov insisted on continuing the excavations. As a result, they took three human skulls out of the ground.

- A stream ran ten meters away. We washed the skulls in it. We look into one of them, and there is a whole brain. He remained intact, despite the fact that 61 years have passed since his death! - recalls Gennady Vasiliev. “This happens to bodies when they lie in a closed place from the air. Soft tissues turn into adipose tissue. When other remains were taken out in 1991, Dr. Botkin's hip part was also preserved - it was covered with this adiposity.

Nicholas II with his wife at a costume ball in St. Petersburg in 1903. Photo: project "The Tragedy of the Family... The Tragedy of the Motherland...", Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore named after O.E. Claire

By evening, it was decided to turn off the excavations. The pit was dug up, planting a bush on top, which was supposed to serve as a guide in the future. And under a nearby tree, geologists hid a note with their names in order to secure the glory of the discoverers.

- With skulls, that's how it turned out. One was kept by Avdonin. And Helium Ryabov took the other two to Moscow so that there, in the laboratory, specialists could restore the appearance of the killed people from them. But he was refused. They demanded that he officially apply. And it was risky, - Gennady Vasiliev sighs. – In the end, the next year we put these three skulls in a box and returned it to where we found it. A bronze icon with the inscription "Those who endure to the end will be saved" was also placed in the box. This is from the gospel. Then we swore that we would be silent about our discovery.

Yeltsin helped to excavate

Once a year, the participants of the excavations met at the grave of the Royal Family. And in 1990, when the USSR was living out its last years, they still found a way to carry out official excavations.

- We got through to Boris Yeltsin, chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, asked for a meeting. We arrived in Moscow. Me and Avdonin. Yeltsin was busy, but we were received by his assistant, Viktor Ilyushin (he was in charge of the secretariat of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, - ed.). We told him that we wanted an official opening of the burial. He immediately dialed Eduard Rossel, who was then chairman of the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee, on a turntable. And the case turned around.

In total, the remains of nine bodies were found at the site where excavations took place in 1979. Although it was known that the Bolsheviks killed 11 people in the Ipatiev house. The remains of two more people, Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria, were found only in 2007, 30 meters from the first burial. According to one version, the Bolsheviks specially made a separate burial place for them, so that by the number of bodies thrown into one grave, no one would guess that they had stumbled upon the royal remains.

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.

This gave particular weight to the arguments of that group of historians and geneticists who are sure that in 1998 absolutely alien remains were buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress under the guise of the imperial family with great fanfare. For almost ten years, the problem of searching and identifying the remains of the family of Nikolai Romanov shot in Yekaterinburg in 1918 has been dealt with by Vadim Viner, professor at the Russian Academy of History and Paleontology. To this end, he even created a special Center to investigate the circumstances of the death of members of the Romanov family, of which he is president. Viner is sure that the statement of Japanese scientists could provoke a new political scandal in Russia if the decision of a special commission of the Russian government, recognizing the "Ekaterinburg remains" as Romanov's, is not canceled. He spoke about the main arguments in this regard and about what interests intertwined in the "Romanov case", he told in an interview with Strana.Ru correspondent Viktor Belimov.

- Vadim Alexandrovich, what grounds does Russia have to trust Tatsuo Nagai?

They are enough. It is known that for an examination of this level, it is necessary to take not the distant relatives of the emperor, but the closest relationship. I mean sisters, brothers, mother. What did the government commission do? She took a distant relationship, second cousins ​​​​of Nicholas II, and a very distant relationship through the line of Alexandra Feodorovna, this is the English Prince Philip. Despite the fact that there is an opportunity to find out the DNA structures of close relatives: there are the relics of Elizabeth Feodorovna, the sister of the Empress, the son of the sister of Nicholas II Tikhon Nikolaevich Kulikovsky-Romanov. Meanwhile, the comparison was made on the basis of analyzes of distant relatives, and very strange results were obtained with such formulations as "there are matches." Coincidence in the language of geneticists does not mean identity at all. Actually, we all agree. Because we have two arms, two legs and one head. This is not an argument. The Japanese, on the other hand, took DNA tests of just close relatives of the emperor.

Second. A completely clear historical fact has been recorded that when Nikolai once, while still a crown prince, went to Japan, he was hit on the head with a saber. Two wounds were inflicted: occipito-parietal and fronto-parietal 9 and 10 cm, respectively. During the cleaning of the second occipital-parietal wound, a fragment of bone as thick as an ordinary sheet of writing paper was removed. This is enough to leave a notch on the skull - the so-called callus, which does not resolve. On the skull, which the Sverdlovsk authorities, and later the federal authorities, passed off as the skull of Nicholas II, there is no such callus. Both the Acquisition Foundation, represented by Mr. Avdonin, and the Sverdlovsk Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, represented by Mr. Nevolin, said whatever they wanted: that, they say, the Japanese were mistaken, that the wound could migrate along the skull, and so on.

And what did the Japanese do? It turns out that after Nikolai's visit to Japan, they kept his scarf, vest, the sofa on which he was sitting, and the saber with which he was hit. All this is in the museum of the city of Otsu. Japanese scientists studied the DNA of the blood that remained on the handkerchief after the injury, and DNA from the cut of the bones found in Yekaterinburg. It turned out that the structures of DNA are different. This was in 1997. Now, Tatsuo Nagai decided to summarize all this data into one comprehensive study. His examination lasted a year and ended quite recently, in July. Japanese geneticists proved 100 percent that the examination conducted by Mr. Ivanov's group was pure hack work. But the DNA analysis carried out by the Japanese is only a link in a whole chain of evidence that the Ekaterinburg remains were not involved in the family of Nicholas II.

In addition, I note that an examination was carried out using the same methodology by another geneticist, the president of the International Association of Forensic Physicians, Mr. Bonte from Dusseldorf. He proved that the found remains and twins of the family of Nicholas II Filatov are relatives.

- Why are the Japanese so interested in proving the mistake of the Russian government and Russian geneticists?

Their interest here is purely professional. They keep a thing that is directly related not only to the memory of Russia, but also to the entire controversial situation. I mean the handkerchief with the king's blood. As you know, geneticists are divided on this issue, as are historians. The Japanese supported the group that is trying to prove that these are not the remains of Nicholas II and his family. And they supported it not because they wanted it, but because their results themselves showed the obvious incompetence of Mr. Ivanov, and even more so the incompetence of the entire government commission that was created under the leadership of Boris Nemtsov. Tatsuo Nagai's conclusions are the last, very strong argument that is difficult to refute.

- Were there any responses to Nagai's statements from your opponents?

There were screams. From the side of the same Avdonin. They say, and here is some Japanese professor, if the governor of the Sverdlovsk region Rossel supported us. Then it was said that it was inspired by some dark forces. Who are they? Apparently, there are many of them, starting with Patriarch Alexy II. Because the Church initially did not accept the point of view of the official authorities.

You said that DNA analysis is only a link in the chain of evidence. What other arguments are there to prove that there are no remains of the last imperial family in the Peter and Paul Fortress?

There are two blocks of arguments. The first block is lifelong medicine. Initially, Nikolai Alexandrovich and his family were served by 37 doctors. Naturally, medical documents have been preserved. This is the easiest examination. And the first argument that we found concerns the discrepancies between the data of the intravital records of doctors and the state of skeleton No. 5. This skeleton was passed off as the skeleton of Anastasia. According to the records of doctors, Anastasia had a height of 158 cm during her lifetime. She was short, plump. The skeleton that was buried is 171 cm tall and is the skeleton of a thin person. The second is the bone callus, as I have already said.

Third. In the diaries of Nicholas II, when he was in Tobolsk, there is an entry: "I was sitting at the dentist." Together with a number of fellow historians, we began to look for who was then a dentist in Tobolsk. He, or rather, she, was alone in the whole city - Maria Lazarevna Rendel. She left her son notes on the state of Nicholas II's teeth. She told me what fillings she applied. We asked forensics to see what kind of fillings the skeleton's teeth had. It turned out that nothing matches. The Medical Examiner's Bureau reiterated that Rendel was wrong. How wrong was she, if she, excuse me, personally treated his teeth?

We started looking for other records. And I found in the State Archives of the Russian Federation at Bolshaya Pirogovskaya, 17, the records of the life physician Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin. In one of the diaries there is a phrase: “”“ Nicholas II unsuccessfully climbed onto a horse. Fell. Broken leg. The pain is localized. Plaster cast." But on the skeleton, which they are trying to pass off as the skeleton of Nicholas II, there is not a single fracture. And we did it at minimal cost. Solovyov, the investigator of the Prosecutor General's Office, who was in charge of this case, did not have to travel abroad and spend budget money, as he did with pleasure. It was enough to look into the archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg. But this does not mean unwillingness, but that the authorities very much wanted to ignore these arguments and documents.

The second block of arguments is related to history. First of all, we raised the question of whether Yurovsky's note, on the basis of which the authorities were looking for a grave, was genuine. And now our colleague, Doctor of Historical Sciences Professor Buranov, finds in the archive a handwritten note written by Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky, and by no means Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky. The grave is clearly marked there. That is, the note is a priori false. Pokrovsky was the first director of the Rosarkhiv. It was used by Stalin when history had to be rewritten. He has a famous expression: "History is politics turned to the past." Yurovsky's note is a fake. Since it's a fake, you can't find a grave from it. This is now a proven issue.

There is also a legal side to this...

It is also full of oddities and absurdities. We originally asked that all this be displayed on the right field. In 1991, Avdonin, who found the grave, applied to the Verkh-Isetsky District Department of Internal Affairs of Yekaterinburg with a statement about the find. From there, they turn to the regional prosecutor's office, and a prosecutor's check is appointed. The grave has been opened. Further it is not clear. A criminal case is not initiated, and within the framework of this check, a prosecutor's examination is appointed. This is already a clear contradiction. That is, they should have initiated a criminal case in connection with the discovery of remains that had signs of violent death. Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As a result, a criminal case is initiated under article 102. A murder committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy. This is where the real politics comes in. Because a simple question arises: if you are taking a case on the circumstances of the death of the royal family, then who should you involve as suspects in the murder? Sverdlov, Lenin, Dzerzhinsky - the city of Moscow? Or Beloborodov, Voikov, Goloshchekin - this is the Ural Council, Yekaterinburg. Against whom will you file a case if they are all dead?

That is, a priori, the case is illegal, and it had no judicial prospects. But under Article 102 it is easier to prove that these are the remains of the Romanov family, or rather, it is easier to ignore the arguments. How was it necessary to act if everything was done according to the law? You must set a statute of limitations, find out that no one can be held liable. The criminal case is to be closed. Next, you need to take the case to court, accept a judicial decision to establish the identity of the person, and then decide on the issue of the funeral. But it was unprofitable for the Prosecutor General's Office. She spent public money, feigning violent activity. That is, it was pure politics. Considering that huge federal budget money was pumped into this business.

The Prosecutor General's Office initiates a case under Article 102 and closes it due to the belonging of the remains to Nicholas II. It's the same difference as between sour and salty. Moreover, the decision on the remains was made not by the court, but by the government of the Russian Federation during the time of Chernomyrdin. The government decides by voting that these are the remains of the royal family. Is this a judgment? Naturally, no.

Moreover, the Prosecutor General's Office represented by Solovyov is seeking to issue a death certificate. I will quote him: “The death certificate was issued to Romanov Nikolai Alexandrovich. Born May 6, 1868. Place of birth unknown. Education unknown. The place of residence before the arrest is unknown. The place of work before the arrest is unknown. Cause of death - shooting. The place of death was the basement of a residential building in the city of Yekaterinburg. Can you tell me who issued this certificate? Do you know where he was born? You don't even know that he was an emperor? This is the real mockery!

- What is the position of the Church?

She does not recognize these remains as authentic, seeing all these contradictions. The church initially divided the two issues - the remains separately, and the names separately. And then, realizing that the government will bury these remains, the Church makes the only correct decision from the series "God knows their names." Here is the paradox. The Church buries under the motto "God knows their names", Yeltsin, under the pressure of the Church, buries some victims of the civil war. The question is: who do we bury at all?

What do you think was the purpose of this whole thing? The argument to travel abroad is still weak. The level of play is still somewhat higher ...

But the banal reason is in the other direction. When did interest in the Romanovs arise? It was then when Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, and then Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, tried to improve relations with Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II said that she would not come to Russia until they apologized to her for the fate of Nicholas II. Nicholas II and her father are cousins. And she went only after they apologized to her. That is, all stages of the appearance and study of these remains are closely related to political events.

The autopsy of the remains took place a few days before the meeting between Gorbachev and Thatcher. As for Britain as such, there, in the bank of the Baring brothers, there is gold, personal gold of Nicholas II. Five and a half tons. They cannot give out this gold until Nicholas II is declared dead. Not even missing. Because no one was wanted. Therefore, he is not missing. According to the laws of Great Britain, the absence of a corpse and the absence of documents declaring a wanted list means that the person is alive. In this situation, apparently hoping that it will be possible to process some relatives, the authorities decide to search for the remains and conduct a poor-quality examination.

- But even after that, the Baring brothers' bank did not issue gold ...

It was not by chance that the Prosecutor General's Office issued a death certificate. And a group of citizens applied to the bank for money. But the bank does not recognize this document. They demand a decision of the Russian court that Nicholas II died and these are his remains.

- And why are relatives ready to worship someone else's grave, if only they were given gold?

For most of the relatives, of course, finding a genuine grave is more important than gold. They tried to drag them into this dirty game. Many refused, but some of the Romanovs nevertheless came to Yekaterinburg for the funeral.

What do you propose to do now, when you have such influential people as Japanese scientists among your allies?

Let's return the case strictly to the legal field. Let's take it to court. The court will reject the system of evidence of the Prosecutor General's Office. Since there are already two judicial rulings in Germany on the recognition of the Yekaterinburg remains as Filatov's relatives. That is, you still need to determine whose remains they are, and transfer them to relatives, let them decide where to bury them. That is, the procedure for the removal of the remains from the Peter and Paul Cathedral looms.

- Do you know whose remains are these?

According to German scientists, these are the remains of the Filatovs, the twins of Nicholas II. And Nicholas II had seven families of twins. This is also a well-known fact. The system of twins began with Alexander the First. When, as a result of a conspiracy, his father Emperor Paul the First was killed, he was afraid that Paul's people would kill him. He gave the command to pick up three doubles for himself. Historically, it is known that there were two assassination attempts on him. Both times he remained alive, because doubles died. Alexander II had no twins. Alexander the Third had twins after the famous train crash in Borki. Nicholas II had twins after Bloody Sunday 1905. Moreover, these were specially selected families. Only at the last moment did a very narrow circle of people find out which route and in which carriage Nicholas II would go. And so the same departure of all three carriages was made. In which of them Nikolai II was sitting is unknown. Documents about this lie in the archives of the third branch of the office of His Imperial Majesty. And the Bolsheviks, having seized the archive in 1917, naturally received the names of all the twins. Further, Sergey Davydovich Berezkin appears in Sukhumi, ideally similar to Nicholas II. His wife is Surovtseva Alexandra Feodorovna, a copy of the Empress. And his children are Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia. They covered the king.

FSB. From there, after all, at one time, in 1955, information was leaked that a grave near Yekaterinburg was opened in 1946. Although there is also the conclusion of Doctor of Medical Sciences Popov that the grave is 50 years old, not 80. As we say, in the Romanov case, he answered one question - another 20 arose. The case is so confusing. It's cleaner than the Kennedy assassination. Because the information is strictly dosed.

- What was the point in 1946 to climb into this grave?

Perhaps it was created at that time. Recall that in 1946 Anna Andersen, a resident of Denmark, tried to get royal gold. By starting the second process of recognizing himself as Anastasia. Her first process did not end with anything, it lasted until the mid-30s. Then she paused and in 1946 filed a lawsuit again. Stalin, apparently, decided that it would be better to make a grave where "Anastasia" would lie, than to explain these issues to the West. There are far-reaching plans, many of which we do not even know about. We can only guess.

- Did the Filatovs live at that time?

Don't know. Filatov's trail is lost.

- And what kind of relatives did the scientist Bonte communicate with?

He talked with Oleg Vasilyevich Filatov. This is the son of Filatov, who, according to some sources, portrayed Nikolai himself, according to others - Alexei. Obviously, Oleg himself heard the ringing, but does not know where he is. The German compared his analyzes with the German relatives of the Filatovs and with the Yekaterinburg remains. And got a 100% match. After all, no one denies this expertise. They are silent about her. Although in Germany it has the status of a judicial one. No one has ever talked about doppelgangers. I somehow hinted in one interview, they told me that I was crazy, although I was raising a problem that really existed.

- What do you intend to do in the future?

We would like to create a discussion club, to hold a series of Internet conferences. In September, the well-known historian Vladlen Sirotkin is due to arrive in Yekaterinburg. He is collecting documents on Russia's claim to the debts of the West. According to him, not only do we owe the West, but the West also owes us. The amount of debt is 400 billion dollars. We owe the Czech Republic, England, France, America, Japan, Germany, Italy. A lot of money was sent to the West for the purchase of weapons during the First World War. These were pledges for future deliveries. But there were no deliveries. Our property is there. Here is the question price, which is really behind all this. We need to show that the problem is multifaceted. It is very important for us that we went against the government, official authorities, including the government of the Sverdlovsk region. We have been persecuted for the sake of establishing historical truth.