Family last emperor The Russian Nikolai Romanov was assassinated in 1918. Due to the concealment of facts by the Bolsheviks, a number of alternative versions appear. For a long time there were rumors that made the murder royal family into legend. There were theories that one of his children escaped.
What actually happened in the summer of 1918 near Yekaterinburg? You will find the answer to this question in our article.
background
Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century was one of the most economically developed countries peace. Nikolai Alexandrovich, who came to power, turned out to be a meek and noble man. In spirit, he was not an autocrat, but an officer. Therefore, with his views on life, it was difficult to manage a crumbling state.
The revolution of 1905 showed the failure of power and its isolation from the people. In fact, there were two authorities in the country. The official one is the emperor, and the real one is officials, nobles and landowners. It was the latter who destroyed the once great power with their greed, licentiousness and short-sightedness.
Strikes and rallies, demonstrations and bread riots, famine. All this was indicative of a decline. the only way out could be the accession to the throne of a powerful and tough ruler who could take control of the country completely under his control.
Nicholas II was not like that. He was focused on building railways, churches, improving the economy and culture in society. He has made progress in these areas. But positive changes affected, basically, only the tops of society, while the majority ordinary people remained at the level of the Middle Ages. Splinters, wells, carts and peasant-craft everyday life.
After joining Russian Empire to the First world war only increased the discontent of the people. The execution of the royal family became the apotheosis of general insanity. Next, we will look into this crime in more detail.
Now it is important to note the following. After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and his brother from the throne in the state, soldiers, workers and peasants begin to advance to the first roles. People who have not previously dealt with management, with a minimum level of culture and superficial judgments, gain power.
Petty local commissars wanted to curry favor with higher ranks. Ordinary and junior officers simply mindlessly carried out orders. Time of Troubles, which came in these turbulent years, splashed unfavorable elements to the surface.
Next you will see more photos of the Romanov royal family. If you look at them carefully, you can see that the clothes of the emperor, his wife and children are by no means pompous. They are no different from the peasants and escorts who surrounded them in exile.
Let's see what really happened in Yekaterinburg in July 1918.
Course of events
The execution of the royal family was planned and prepared for quite a long time. While power was still in the hands of the Provisional Government, they tried to protect them. Therefore, after the events in July 1917 in Petrograd, the emperor, his wife, children and retinue were transferred to Tobolsk.
The place was specially chosen to be quiet. But in fact, they found one from which it was difficult to escape. By that time railways have not yet been extended to Tobolsk. The nearest station was two hundred and eighty kilometers away.
It sought to protect the family of the emperor, so the exile to Tobolsk became for Nicholas II a respite before the subsequent nightmare. The king, queen, their children and retinue stayed there for more than six months.
But in April, the Bolsheviks, after a fierce struggle for power, recall the "unfinished business." The decision is made to deliver all imperial family to Yekaterinburg, which at that time was a stronghold of the red movement.
Prince Mikhail, the tsar's brother, was the first to be transferred to Perm from Petrograd. At the end of March, son Mikhail and three children of Konstantin Konstantinovich were sent to Vyatka. Later, the last four are transferred to Yekaterinburg.
The main reason for the transfer to the east was family ties Nicholas Alexandrovich with the German Emperor Wilhelm, as well as the proximity of the Entente to Petrograd. The revolutionaries were afraid of the release of the king and the restoration of the monarchy.
The role of Yakovlev, who was instructed to transport the emperor and his family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, is interesting. He knew about the assassination attempt on the tsar being prepared by the Siberian Bolsheviks.
Judging by the archives, there are two opinions of experts. The first say that in reality it is Konstantin Myachin. And he received a directive from the Center "to deliver the king and his family to Moscow." The latter are inclined to believe that Yakovlev was a European spy who intended to save the emperor by taking him to Japan through Omsk and Vladivostok.
After arriving in Yekaterinburg, all prisoners were placed in the Ipatiev mansion. A photo of the royal family of the Romanovs has been preserved when they were transferred to the Yakovlev Ural Council. The place of detention among the revolutionaries was called "the house special purpose».
Here they were kept for seventy-eight days. More details about the relationship of the convoy to the emperor and his family will be discussed later. In the meantime, it is important to focus on the fact that it was rude and boorish. They were robbed, psychologically and morally crushed, mocked in such a way that it was not noticeable outside the walls of the mansion.
Considering the results of the investigations, we will dwell in more detail on the night when the monarch with his family and retinue was shot. Now we note that the execution took place at about half past three in the night. Life physician Botkin, on the orders of the revolutionaries, woke up all the captives and went down with them to the basement.
There a terrible crime took place. Yurovsky commanded. He blurted out a prepared phrase that "they are trying to save them, and the matter is urgent." None of the prisoners understood. Nicholas II only had time to ask them to repeat what was said, but the soldiers, frightened by the horror of the situation, began firing indiscriminately. Moreover, several punishers fired from another room through the doorway. According to eyewitnesses, not everyone was killed the first time. Some were finished off with a bayonet.
Thus, this indicates the haste and unpreparedness of the operation. The execution became lynching, to which the Bolsheviks who had lost their heads went.
Government disinformation
The execution of the royal family still remains an unsolved mystery of Russian history. Responsibility for this atrocity may lie both with Lenin and Sverdlov, for whom the Ural Soviet simply provided an alibi, and directly with the Siberian revolutionaries, who succumbed to general panic and lost their heads in wartime conditions.
Nevertheless, immediately after the atrocity, the government launched a campaign to whitewash its reputation. Among researchers dealing with this period, the latest actions are called the "disinformation campaign."
The death of the royal family was proclaimed the only necessary measure. Since, judging by the customized Bolshevik articles, a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was uncovered. Some white officers planned to attack the Ipatiev mansion and free the emperor and his family.
The second point, which was furiously hidden for many years, was that eleven people were shot. Emperor, his wife, five children and four servants.
The events of the crime were not disclosed for several years. official recognition was given only in 1925. This decision was prompted by the publication in Western Europe of a book that outlined the results of Sokolov's investigation. At the same time, Bykov was instructed to write about the "real course of events." This pamphlet was published in Sverdlovsk in 1926.
Nevertheless, the lies of the Bolsheviks on international level, as well as hiding the truth from the common people, shook faith in power. and its consequences, according to Lykova, caused people to distrust the government, which has not changed even in the post-Soviet era.
The fate of the rest of the Romanovs
The execution of the royal family had to be prepared. A similar "warm-up" was the liquidation of the Emperor's brother Mikhail Alexandrovich with his personal secretary.
On the night of the twelfth to the thirteenth of June 1918, they were forcibly taken out of the Perm hotel out of town. They were shot in the forest, and their remains have not yet been found.
A statement was made to the international press that Grand Duke was kidnapped by intruders and disappeared without a trace. For Russia, the official version was the escape of Mikhail Alexandrovich.
The main purpose of such a statement was to speed up the trial of the emperor and his family. They started a rumor that the escapee could contribute to the release " bloody tyrant from "just punishment".
Not only the last royal family suffered. In Vologda, eight people related to the Romanovs were also killed. The victims include princes imperial blood Igor, Ivan and Konstantin Konstantinovich, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Prince Paley, steward and cell attendant.
All of them were thrown into the Nizhnyaya Selimskaya mine, not far from the city of Alapaevsk. They only resisted and were shot dead. The rest were stunned and thrown down alive. In 2009, they were all canonized as martyrs.
But the thirst for blood did not subside. In January 1919 in Peter and Paul Fortress four more Romanovs were also shot. Nikolai and Georgy Mikhailovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich and Pavel Alexandrovich. The official version of the revolutionary committee was as follows: the liquidation of the hostages in response to the assassination of Liebknecht and Luxembourg in Germany.
Memoirs of contemporaries
Researchers have tried to reconstruct how members of the royal family were killed. The best way to deal with this is the testimonies of people who were present there.
The first such source is notes from personal diary Trotsky. He noted that the blame lies with local authorities. He especially singled out the names of Stalin and Sverdlov as the people who made this decision. Lev Davidovich writes that in the conditions of the approach of the Czechoslovak detachments, Stalin's phrase that "the tsar cannot be handed over to the White Guards" became a death sentence.
But scientists doubt the exact reflection of events in the notes. They were made in the late thirties, when he was working on a biography of Stalin. A number of errors were made there, indicating that Trotsky forgot many of those events.
The second evidence is information from Milyutin's diary, which mentions the murder of the royal family. He writes that Sverdlov came to the meeting and asked Lenin to speak. As soon as Yakov Mikhailovich said that the tsar was gone, Vladimir Ilyich abruptly changed the subject and continued the meeting, as if the previous phrase had not happened.
The most complete history of the royal family in the last days of his life was restored according to the protocols of interrogations of participants in these events. People from the guard, punitive and funeral squads testified several times.
Although they are often confused, the main idea remains the same. All the Bolsheviks who were next to the tsar in recent months, had claims against him. Someone in the past was in prison himself, someone has relatives. In general, they gathered a contingent of former prisoners.
In Yekaterinburg, anarchists and socialist-revolutionaries put pressure on the Bolsheviks. In order not to lose credibility, the local council decided to quickly put an end to this matter. Moreover, there was a rumor that Lenin wanted to exchange royal family to reduce the contribution.
According to the participants, it was the only solution. In addition, many of them boasted during interrogations that they personally killed the emperor. Who with one, and who with three shots. Judging by the diaries of Nikolai and his wife, the workers guarding them were often drunk. So real events certainly cannot be restored.
What happened to the remains
The murder of the royal family took place in secret, and they planned to keep it a secret. But those responsible for the liquidation of the remains did not cope with their task.
A very large funeral team was assembled. Yurovsky had to send many back to the city "as unnecessary."
According to the testimonies of the participants in the process, they were busy with the task for several days. At first, it was planned to burn the clothes, and throw the naked bodies into the mine and cover them with earth. But the crash didn't work. I had to remove the remains of the royal family and come up with another way.
It was decided to burn them or bury them along the road, which was just being built. Previously, it was planned to disfigure the bodies with sulfuric acid beyond recognition. It is clear from the protocols that two corpses were burned, and the rest were buried.
Presumably, the body of Alexei and one girl from the servant burned down.
The second difficulty was that the team was busy all night, and in the morning travelers began to appear. An order was given to cordon off the place and forbid leaving the neighboring village. But the secrecy of the operation was hopelessly failed.
The investigation showed that attempts to bury the bodies were near the mine number 7 and the 184th crossing. In particular, they were discovered near the latter in 1991.
Kirsta investigation
On July 26-27, 1918, peasants discovered in a fire pit near the Isetsky mine a golden cross with precious stones. The discovery was immediately delivered to Lieutenant Sheremetyev, who was hiding from the Bolsheviks in the village of Koptyaki. It was carried out, but later the case was assigned to Kirsta.
He began to study the testimony of witnesses who pointed to the murder of the royal Romanov family. The information confused and frightened him. The investigator did not expect that these were not the consequences of a military court, but a criminal case.
He began to interrogate witnesses who gave contradictory testimonies. But on their basis, Kirsta concluded that perhaps only the emperor and his heir were shot. The rest of the family was taken to Perm.
One gets the impression that this investigator set himself the goal of proving that not the entire Romanov royal family was killed. Even after he explicitly confirmed the crime, Kirsta continued to interrogate new people.
So, over time, he finds a certain doctor Utochkin, who proved that he treated Princess Anastasia. Then another witness spoke of the transfer of the emperor's wife and some of the children to Perm, which she knew about from rumors.
After Kirsta finally confused the case, it was given to another investigator.
Sokolov's investigation
Kolchak, who came to power in 1919, ordered Dieterichs to figure out how the Romanov royal family was killed. The latter delegated this case to an investigator for special important matters Omsk region.
His last name was Sokolov. This man began to investigate the murder of the royal family from scratch. Although he was given all the paperwork, he did not trust Kirsta's confusing protocols.
Sokolov again visited the mine, as well as the Ipatiev mansion. Inspection of the house was hampered by the location of the headquarters Czech army. Nevertheless, a German inscription on the wall was discovered, a quotation from Heine's verse that the monarch was killed by subjects. The words were clearly scratched out after the loss of the city by the Reds.
In addition to documents on Yekaterinburg, the investigator was sent files on the murder of Prince Mikhail in Perm and on the crime against the princes in Alapaevsk.
After the Bolsheviks recapture this region, Sokolov takes out all the paperwork to Harbin, and then to Western Europe. Photos of the royal family, diaries, evidence, and so on were evacuated.
He published the results of the investigation in 1924 in Paris. In 1997, Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, transferred all office work to the Russian government. In return, he was delivered the archives of his family, taken out during the Second World War.
Modern Investigation
In 1979, a group of enthusiasts led by Ryabov and Avdonin archival documents discovered a burial near the 184 km station. In 1991, the latter declared that he knew where the remains of the executed emperor were. An investigation was reopened to finally shed light on the murder of the royal family.
The main work on this case was carried out in the archives of the two capitals and in the cities that appeared in the reports of the twenties. Protocols, letters, telegrams, photos of the royal family and their diaries were studied. In addition, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, research was carried out in the archives of most countries Western Europe and USA.
The study of the burial was carried out by the senior prosecutor-criminalist Solovyov. On the whole, he confirmed all of Sokolov's materials. His message to Patriarch Alexei II states that “under the conditions of that time it was impossible total annihilation corpses."
In addition, a consequence of the end of XX - early XXI century completely refuted alternative versions events, which we will discuss next.
The canonization of the royal family was carried out in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and in Russia in 2000.
Since the Bolsheviks tried to classify this crime, rumors spread that contributed to the formation of alternative versions.
So, according to one of them, it was a ritual murder due to a conspiracy of the Jewish Masons. One of the investigator's assistants testified that he saw "kabbalistic symbols" on the basement walls. When checked, it turned out to be traces of bullets and bayonets.
According to the theory of Dieterichs, the head of the emperor was cut off and alcoholized. The finds of the remains disproved this crazy idea.
Rumors spread by the Bolsheviks and false testimonies of "eyewitnesses" gave rise to a series of versions about people who escaped. But photographs of the royal family in the last days of their lives do not confirm them. As well as the found and identified remains refute these versions.
Only after all the facts of this crime were proven, the canonization of the royal family took place in Russia. This explains why it was held 19 years later than abroad.
So, in this article, we got acquainted with the circumstances and investigation of one of the worst atrocities in the history of Russia in the twentieth century.
The text of the resolution of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, published a week after the execution, said: “In view of the fact that the Czechoslovak gangs threaten the capital of the Red Urals, Yekaterinburg; in view of the fact that the crowned executioner can avoid the court of the people (a conspiracy of the White Guards had just been discovered, which had the aim of kidnapping the entire Romanov family), the Presidium of the Regional Committee, in pursuance of the will of the people, decided: to shoot former Tsar Nicholas Romanov guilty before the people of countless bloody crimes.
The civil war was gaining momentum, and Yekaterinburg soon really came under the control of the whites. The decree did not report on the execution of the entire family, but the members of the Ural Council were guided by the formula "You can't leave them a banner." According to the revolutionaries, any of the Romanovs liberated by the Whites could later be used for the project of restoration of the monarchy in Russia.
If you look at the question more broadly, then Nikolai and Alexandra Romanovs considered populace as the main culprits of the troubles that occurred in the country at the beginning of the 20th century - a lost Russo-Japanese War, « Bloody Sunday"and the subsequent first Russian revolution," Rasputinism ", the First World War, low level life, etc.
Contemporaries testify that among the workers of Yekaterinburg there were demands for reprisals against the tsar, caused by rumors about attempts to escape the Romanov family.
The execution of all the Romanovs, including children, is perceived as a terrible atrocity from the point of view of peacetime. But under conditions civil war both sides fought with increasing brutality, in which not only ideological opponents but also their families were increasingly killed.
As for the execution of the close associates who accompanied the royal family, the members of the Ural Council subsequently explained their actions as follows: they decided to share the fate of the Romanovs, so let them share it to the end.
Who made the decision to execute Nikolai Romanov and his family members?
The official decision to execute Nicholas II and his relatives was made on July 16, 1918 by the Presidium of the Ural Regional Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies.
This council was not exclusively Bolshevik and also consisted of anarchists and Left Social Revolutionaries, who were even more radically disposed towards the family of the last emperor.
It is known that the top leadership of the Bolsheviks in Moscow considered holding a trial of Nikolai Romanov in Moscow. However, the situation in the country deteriorated sharply, the Civil War broke out and the issue was postponed. The question of what to do with the rest of the family was not even discussed.
In the spring of 1918, rumors about the death of the Romanovs arose several times, but the Bolshevik government denied them. Lenin's directive, sent to Yekaterinburg, demanded the prevention of "any violence" against the royal family.
Higher Soviet leadership in the face Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov was put by the Ural comrades before the fact - the Romanovs were executed. Under the conditions of the Civil War, the control of the center over the regions was often formal.
To date, no real evidence, allowing us to assert that the government of the RSFSR in Moscow ordered the execution of Nikolai Romanov and members of his family.
Why were the children of the last emperor executed?
In conditions of acute political crisis During the Civil War, the four daughters and son of Nikolai Romanov were not seen as ordinary children, but as figures with the help of which the monarchy could be revived.
Based known facts It can be said that such a view was not close to the Bolshevik government in Moscow, but the revolutionaries on the ground reasoned in this way. Therefore, the children of the Romanovs shared the fate of their parents.
At the same time, it cannot be said that the execution of the royal children is a cruelty that has no analogues in history.
After being elected to the Russian throne founder of the Romanov dynasty Mikhail Fedorovich, in Moscow, a 3-year-old was hanged at the Serpukhov Gate Ivashka Vorenok, aka Tsarevich Ivan Dmitrievich, son of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry II. The whole fault of the unfortunate child was that the opponents of Mikhail Romanov considered Ivan Dmitrievich as a contender for the throne. Supporters new dynasty removed the problem radically by strangling the baby.
At the end of 1741, as a result of a coup, she ascended the Russian throne Elizaveta Petrovna, daughter Peter the Great. At the same time, she overthrew John VI, the baby emperor, who at the time of the overthrow was not even one and a half years old. The child was subjected to strict isolation, forbidding his images and even pronouncing his name in public. Having spent his childhood in exile in Kholmogory, at the age of 16 he was imprisoned in solitary confinement in Shlisselburg fortress. After spending his whole life in captivity, the former emperor, at the age of 23, was stabbed to death by guards while failed attempt his release.
Is it true that the murder of the family of Nikolai Romanov was of a ritual nature?
All investigative groups that have ever worked on the case of the execution of the Romanov family came to the conclusion that it was not of a ritual nature. Information about certain signs and inscriptions at the place of execution, which have a symbolic meaning, is a product of myth-making. This version was most widely disseminated thanks to the book of the Nazi Helmut Schramm"Ritual Murder Among the Jews". Schramm himself included it in the book at the suggestion of Russian emigrants. Mikhail Skaryatin and Grigory Schwartz-Bostunich. The latter not only collaborated with the Nazis, but made a brilliant career in the Third Reich, rising to the rank of SS Standartenführer.
Is it true that some members of the family of Nicholas II escaped execution?
To date, we can confidently say that both Nikolai and Alexandra, as well as all their five children, died in Yekaterinburg. In general, the vast majority of members of the Romanov clan either died during the revolution and the Civil War, or left the country. The rarest exception can be considered the great-great-great-granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, Natalya Androsova, who in the USSR became a circus performer and a master of sports in motorcycle racing.
AT to some extent the members of the Ural Council achieved the goal they were striving for - the ground for the revival of the institution of the monarchy in the country was completely and irrevocably destroyed.
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On the night of July 16-17, 1918, in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, the heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as the life medical doctor Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexei Trupp, room girl Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov.
The last Russian emperor, Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II), ascended the throne in 1894 after the death of the emperor's father. Alexander III and ruled until 1917, until the situation in the country became more complicated. On March 12 (February 27, old style), 1917, an armed uprising began in Petrograd, and on March 15 (March 2, old style), 1917, at the insistence of the Provisional Committee State Duma Nicholas II signed the abdication for himself and his son Alexei in favor of younger brother Mikhail Alexandrovich.
After his abdication from March to August 1917, Nikolai and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace. Tsarskoye Selo. A special commission of the Provisional Government studied materials for the possible trial of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on charges of treason. Not finding evidence and documents that clearly denounced them in this, the Provisional Government was inclined to deport them abroad (to Great Britain).
In August 1917, the arrested were transferred to Tobolsk. The main idea of the Bolshevik leadership was an open trial of former emperor. In April 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the Romanovs to Moscow. For judgment on former king Vladimir Lenin spoke out, it was supposed to make Leon Trotsky the main accuser of Nicholas II. However, information appeared about the existence of "White Guard conspiracies" to kidnap the tsar, the concentration of "officers-conspirators" for this purpose in Tyumen and Tobolsk, and on April 6, 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the royal family to the Urals. The royal family was moved to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Ipatiev house.
The uprising of the White Czechs and the offensive of the White Guard troops on Yekaterinburg accelerated the decision to execute the former tsar.
It was entrusted to the commandant of the House of Special Purpose Yakov Yurovsky to organize the execution of all members of the royal family, Dr. Botkin and the servants who were in the house.
© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg
The execution scene is known from investigative protocols, from the words of participants and eyewitnesses and stories of direct performers. Yurovsky spoke about the execution of the royal family in three documents: "Note" (1920); "Memoirs" (1922) and "Speech at a meeting of old Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg" (1934). All the details of this atrocity, transmitted by the main participant in different time and under completely different circumstances, agree on how the royal family and its servants were shot.
According to documentary sources, it is possible to establish the time of the beginning of the murder of Nicholas II, members of his family and their servants. The vehicle that delivered last order about the destruction of the family, arrived at half past one in the night from 16 to 17 July 1918. After that, the commandant ordered the life doctor Botkin to wake the royal family. It took the family about 40 minutes to get ready, then she and the servants were transferred to the basement of this house, overlooking Voznesensky Lane. Nicholas II carried Tsarevich Alexei in his arms, because he could not walk due to illness. At the request of Alexandra Feodorovna, two chairs were brought into the room. She sat on one, on the other Tsarevich Alexei. The rest lined up along the wall. Yurovsky led the firing squad into the room and read the sentence.
Here is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I invited everyone to stand. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies Ural decided to shoot them. Nicholas turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: "Shoot." I fired the first shot and killed Nikolai on the spot. The firing lasted a very long time and, despite my hopes that the wooden wall would not ricochet, the bullets bounced off it. For a long time I could not stop this shooting, which had taken on a careless character. But when I finally managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Dr. Botkin was lying, leaning on his elbow right hand, as if in the pose of a rester, finished him off with a revolver shot. Alexei, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Tov. Ermakov wanted to finish the job with a bayonet. But, however, it did not work. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond shells like bras). I had to shoot each one in turn."
After the statement of death, all the corpses began to be transferred to the truck. At the beginning of the fourth hour, at dawn, the corpses of the dead were taken out of the Ipatiev house.
The remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, Olga, Tatyana and Anastasia Romanov, as well as those from their entourage, who were shot in the House of Special Purpose (Ipatiev House), were discovered in July 1991 near Yekaterinburg.
On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the royal family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
In October 2008, the presidium Supreme Court The Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate Russian emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia also decided to rehabilitate members imperial family- Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. The servants and close associates of the royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks or were subjected to repression, were rehabilitated.
In January 2009, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation stopped investigating the case on the circumstances of the death and burial of the last Russian emperor, members of his family and people from his entourage, who were shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal liability and death of the persons who committed the deliberate murder" (subparagraphs 3 and 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR).
The tragic history of the royal family: from execution to restIn 1918, on the night of July 17 in Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, heir Tsarevich Alexei were shot.On January 15, 2009, the investigator issued a decision to close the criminal case, but Judge Basmanny district court On August 26, 2010, the city of Moscow decided, in accordance with Article 90 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, to recognize this decision as unfounded and ordered to eliminate the violations committed. On November 25, 2010, the decision of the investigation to dismiss this case was canceled by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee.
On January 14, 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced that the decision was brought in accordance with the court decision and the criminal case on the death of representatives of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in 1918-1919 was terminated. Identification of the remains of members of the family of the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II (Romanov) and persons from his retinue has been confirmed.
On October 27, 2011, the decision to close the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family was. The ruling on 800 pages contains the main conclusions of the investigation and indicates the authenticity of the discovered remains of the royal family.
However, the question of authentication still remains open. Russian Orthodox Church in order to recognize the found remains as relics royal martyrs, Russian imperial house on this issue supports the position of the ROC. The Director of the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic expertise not enough.
The Church canonized Nicholas II and his family and on July 17 celebrates the feast day of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Exactly 100 years ago, on July 17, 1918, the Chekists shot the royal family in Yekaterinburg. The remains were found more than 50 years later. There are many rumors and myths around the execution. At the request of colleagues from Meduza, Ksenia Luchenko, a journalist and associate professor at the RANEPA, who has written numerous publications on the subject, answered key questions about the murder and burial of the Romanovs.
How many people were shot?
The royal family with their close associates was shot in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 17, 1918. A total of 11 people were killed - Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their four daughters - Anastasia, Olga, Maria and Tatyana, son Alexei, family doctor Yevgeny Botkin, cook Ivan Kharitonov and two servants - valet Aloysia Truppa and maid Anna Demidova.
The execution order has not yet been found. Historians found a telegram from Yekaterinburg, which says that the tsar was shot because of the approach of the enemy to the city and the disclosure of the White Guard conspiracy. The decision to execute local authority authorities Uralsovet. However, historians believe that the order was given by the leadership of the party, and not by the Ural Council. The commandant of the Ipatiev House, Yakov Yurovsky, was appointed the head of the execution.
Is it true that some members of the royal family did not die immediately?
Yes, if you believe the testimony of witnesses to the execution, Tsarevich Alexei survived after the automatic burst. He was shot by Yakov Yurovsky with a revolver. This was told by the guard Pavel Medvedev. He wrote that Yurovsky sent him outside to check if the shots were heard. When he returned, the whole room was covered in blood, and Tsarevich Alexei was still moaning.
A photo: Grand Duchess Olga and Tsarevich Alexei on the ship "Rus" on the way from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. May 1918, last known photograph Yurovsky himself wrote that not only Alexei had to “shoot”, but also his three sisters, the “maid of honor” (maid Demidov) and Dr. Botkin. There is also the testimony of another eyewitness - Alexander Strekotin.
“The arrested were already all lying on the floor, bleeding, and the heir was still sitting on a chair. For some reason, he did not fall off his chair for a long time and remained still alive.
It is said that the bullets bounced off the diamonds on the princesses' belts. It's true?
Yurovsky wrote in his note that the bullets ricocheted off something and jumped around the room like hailstones. Immediately after the execution, the Chekists tried to appropriate the property of the royal family, but Yurovsky threatened them with death so that they would return the stolen property. Jewels were also found in Ganina Yama, where Yurovsky's team burned the personal belongings of the dead (the inventory includes diamonds, platinum earrings, thirteen large pearls, and so on).
Is it true that their animals were killed along with the royal family?
Photo: Grand Duchess Maria, Olga, Anastasia and Tatiana in Tsarskoye Selo, where they were held in custody. With them is the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Jemmy and the French Bulldog Ortino. Spring 1917 The royal children had three dogs. After the night execution, only one survived - the spaniel of Tsarevich Alexei, nicknamed Joy. He was taken to England, where he died of old age in the palace of King George, cousin Nicholas II. A year after the execution, at the bottom of the mine in Ganina Yama, they found the body of a dog, which was well preserved in the cold. She had a broken right paw and a broken head. Teacher in English Charles Gibbs, who helped Nikolai Sokolov in the investigation, identified her as Jemmy - Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Grand Duchess Anastasia. A third dog, Tatiana's French bulldog, was also found dead.
How were the remains of the royal family found?
After the execution, Yekaterinburg was occupied by the army of Alexander Kolchak. He ordered an investigation into the murder and the search for the remains of the royal family. Investigator Nikolai Sokolov studied the area, found fragments of burnt clothes of members of the royal family, and even described the “bridge of sleepers”, under which a burial was found several decades later, but came to the conclusion that the remains were completely destroyed in Ganina Yama.
The remains of the royal family were found only in the late 1970s. Screenwriter Geliy Ryabov was obsessed with the idea of finding the remains, and Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "The Emperor" helped him in this. Thanks to the lines of the poet, Ryabov got an idea of the burial place of the tsar, which the Bolsheviks showed Mayakovsky. Ryabov often wrote about the exploits of the Soviet police, so he had access to classified documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Photo: Photo No. 70. An open mine at the time of its development. Yekaterinburg, spring 1919 In 1976, Ryabov came to Sverdlovsk, where he met a local historian and geologist Alexander Avdonin. It is clear that even screenwriters favored by the ministers in those years could not openly engage in the search for the remains of the royal family. Therefore, Ryabov, Avdonin and their assistants secretly searched for a burial place for several years.
The son of Yakov Yurovsky gave Ryabov a “note” from his father, where he described not only the murder of the royal family, but also the subsequent throwing of the Chekists in an attempt to hide the bodies. The description of the place of the final burial under the flooring of sleepers near the truck stuck in the road coincided with Mayakovsky's "indication" about the road. It was the old Koptyakovskaya road, and the place itself was called Porosenkov Log. Ryabov and Avdonin explored the space with probes, which they outlined by comparing maps and various documents.
In the summer of 1979, they found a burial and opened it for the first time, taking out three skulls from there. They realized that it would not be possible to conduct any examinations in Moscow, and it was dangerous to keep the skulls, so the researchers put them in a box and returned them to the grave a year later. They kept the secret until 1989. And in 1991, the remains of nine people were officially found. Two more badly burned bodies (by that time it was already clear that these were the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria) were found in 2007 a little further away.
Is it true that the murder of the royal family is ritual?
There is a typical anti-Semitic myth that Jews allegedly kill people for ritual purposes. And the execution of the royal family also has its own "ritual" version.
Once in exile in the 1920s, three participants in the first investigation into the murder of the royal family - investigator Nikolai Sokolov, journalist Robert Wilton and General Mikhail Diterikhs - wrote books about this.
Sokolov cites an inscription he saw on the wall in the basement of the Ipatiev house, where the murder took place: "Belsazar ward in selbiger Nacht Von seinen Knechten umgebracht." This is a quote from Heinrich Heine and translates as "That very night Belshazzar was killed by his lackeys." He also mentions that he saw some kind of "designation of four signs" there. Wilton in his book concludes from this that the signs were "kabbalistic", adds that among the members firing squad there were Jews (out of those directly involved in the execution, only one Jew was Yakov Yurovsky, and he was baptized into Lutheranism) and comes to the version about ritual murder royal family. Dieterikhs also adheres to the anti-Semitic version.
Wilton also writes that Diterichs during the investigation had an assumption that the heads of the dead were cut off and taken to Moscow as trophies. Most likely, this assumption was born in an attempt to prove that the bodies were burned in Ganina Pit: no teeth were found in the fire, which should have remained after burning, therefore, there were no heads in it.
The version of the ritual murder circulated in émigré monarchist circles. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized the royal family in 1981 - almost 20 years earlier than the Russian Orthodox Church, so many of the myths that the cult of the martyr tsar managed to acquire in Europe were exported to Russia.
In 1998, the patriarchy asked the investigation ten questions, which were fully answered by the senior prosecutor-criminalist of the Main Investigation Department who led the investigation. Prosecutor General's Office RF Vladimir Solovyov. Question #9 was about ritual character murders, question number 10 - about the amputation of heads. Solovyov replied that there are no criteria for “ritual murder” in Russian legal practice, but “the circumstances of the death of a family indicate that the actions of persons involved in the direct execution of the sentence (selection of the place of execution, team, murder weapons, burial place, manipulations with corpses) were determined by chance. People of various nationalities (Russians, Jews, Magyars, Latvians and others) took part in these actions. The so-called "kabbalistic writings have no analogues in the world, and their writing is interpreted arbitrarily, and essential details are discarded." All the skulls of those killed were intact and relatively intact, additional anthropological studies confirmed the presence of all cervical vertebrae and their correspondence to each of the skulls and bones of the skeleton.
Moscow. On July 17, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and all members of his family were shot in Yekaterinburg. Almost a hundred years later, the tragedy has been studied up and down by Russian and foreign researchers. Below are the top 10 important facts about what happened in July 1917 in the Ipatiev House.
1. The Romanov family and retinue were placed in Yekaterinburg on April 30, in the house of a retired military engineer N.N. Ipatiev. Doctor E. S. Botkin, footman A. E. Trupp, Empress A. S. Demidov’s maid, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived in the house with the royal family. All but the cook were killed along with the Romanovs.
2. In June 1917, Nicholas II received several letters allegedly from a white Russian officer. The anonymous author of the letters told the tsar that the supporters of the crown intended to kidnap the prisoners of the Ipatiev House and asked Nikolai to help - draw plans for the rooms, inform the sleep schedule of family members, etc. The tsar, however, in his response stated: "We do not want and cannot run away. We can only be kidnapped by force, just as we were brought from Tobolsk by force.Therefore, do not count on any of our active assistance", thereby refusing to assist the "kidnappers", but without giving up the very idea of being kidnapped.
Subsequently, it turned out that the letters were written by the Bolsheviks in order to test the readiness of the royal family to escape. The author of the texts of the letters was P. Voikov.
3. Rumors about the assassination of Nicholas II appeared in June 1917 after the assassination of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The official version of the disappearance of Mikhail Alexandrovich was an escape; at the same time, the tsar was allegedly killed by a Red Army soldier who broke into the Ipatiev House.
4. Exact text sentencing, which the Bolsheviks took out and read to the tsar and his family, is unknown. At about 2 am from July 16 to 17, the guards woke the doctor Botkin so that he would wake up the royal family, ordered them to get together and go down to the basement. It went to the fees, different sources, from half an hour to an hour. After the Romanovs with the servants went down, the Chekist Yankel Yurovsky informed them that they would be killed.
According to various recollections, he said:
"Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they did not have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves"(Based on the materials of the investigator N. Sokolov)
"Nikolai Alexandrovich! The attempts of your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And now, in a difficult time for Soviet Republic... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and cuts the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission of ending the house of the Romanovs "(according to the memoirs of M. Medvedev (Kudrin))
"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death"(according to the memoirs of Yurovsky's assistant G. Nikulin.)
Yurovsky himself later said that he did not remember the exact words he uttered. "... I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following, that his royal relatives and close ones both in the country and abroad, tried to release him, and that the Soviet of Workers' Deputies decided to shoot them."
5. Emperor Nicholas, having heard the verdict, asked again:"My God, what is this?" According to other sources, he managed to say only: "What?"
6. Three Latvians refused to carry out the sentence and left the basement shortly before the Romanovs went down there. The weapons of the refuseniks were distributed among those who remained. According to the recollections of the participants themselves, 8 people participated in the execution. “In fact, there were 8 performers of us: Yurovsky, Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev, Pavel Medvedev four, Peter Ermakov five, so I’m not sure that Kabanov Ivan is six. And I don’t remember the names of two more,” G writes in his memoirs. .Nikulin.
7. It is still unknown whether the execution of the royal family was sanctioned by the highest authorities. By official version, the decision to "execute" was made by the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, while the central Soviet leadership found out about what had happened only after. By the beginning of the 90s. a version was formed according to which the Ural authorities could not make such a decision without a directive from the Kremlin and agreed to take responsibility for the unauthorized execution in order to ensure central government political alibi.
The fact that the Ural Regional Council was not a judicial or other body that had the authority to pass sentence, the execution of the Romanovs long time not seen as political repression, but as a murder, which prevented the posthumous rehabilitation of the royal family.
8. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were taken out of the city and burned, previously poured with sulfuric acid to bring the remains beyond recognition. The authorization to allocate a large number sulfuric acid was issued by P. Voikov, commissioner for the supply of the Urals.
9. Information about the murder of the royal family became known to society a few years later; initially Soviet authority reported that only Nicholas II was killed, Alexander Fedorovna with children was allegedly transported to safe place to Perm. He told the truth about the fate of the entire royal family in the article " Last days the last tsar" P. M. Bykov.
The Kremlin recognized the fact of the execution of all members of the royal family, when the results of the investigation of N. Sokolov became known in the West, in 1925.
10 Remains Of Five Members imperial family and four of their servants were found in July 1991. not far from Yekaterinburg under the embankment of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the imperial family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In July 2007, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found.
