Information about the execution of the royal family. Execution of the royal family

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

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

As is known, in the burial in 1998 of the remains royal family The Russian Orthodox Church did not participate, explaining that the church was not sure whether the original remains of the royal family were being buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to a book by Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned. Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the burning site are kept in Brussels, in the Church of St. Job the Long-Suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of Yurovsky’s note, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of investigator Sokolov). And now, in the coming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been tasked with giving a final answer to all the dark execution sites near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer, research has been carried out for several years under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. Again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and the forces of the prosecutor's office are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a thick veil of secrecy.

Genetic identification research is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the Russian Orthodox Church. At the beginning of July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents have been discovered. For example, Sverdlov’s order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, based on the results of recent research, criminologists have confirmed that the remains of the Tsar and Tsarina belong to them, since a mark was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a mark from a saber blow he received while visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her using the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins.

Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign’s skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of Nikolai’s presumed remains due to periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist whom Nikolai contacted remained. In addition, no explanation has yet been found for the fact that the height of the skeleton of “Princess Anastasia” is 13 centimeters greater than her lifetime height. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church... Shevkunov didn’t say a word about genetic testing, and this despite the fact that genetic research 2003, carried out by Russian and American specialists, showed that the genome of the body of the alleged empress and her sister Elizaveta Feodorovna do not match, which means there is no relationship.

On this topic

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

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

This kind of money is worth fighting for

Today, some of the Russian elites have suddenly awakened an interest in one very piquant history of relations between Russia and the United States, connected with the Romanov royal family. The story in a nutshell is this: More than 100 years ago, in 1913, the United States created the Federal Reserve System (FRS), a central bank and international currency printing press that still operates today. The Fed was created for the newly created League of Nations (now the UN) and would be a united world financial center with your own currency. Russia contributed to the " authorized capital» system 48,600 tons of gold. But the Rothschilds demanded that Woodrow Wilson, who was then re-elected as US President, transfer the center to their private ownership along with the gold. The organization became known as the Federal Reserve System, where Russia owned 88.8%, and 11.2% belonged to 43 international beneficiaries. Receipts stating that 88.8% of gold assets for a period of 99 years are under the control of the Rothschilds were transferred in six copies to the family of Nicholas II. The annual income on these deposits was fixed at 4%, which was supposed to be transferred to Russia annually, but was deposited in the X-1786 account of the World Bank and in 300 thousand accounts in 72 international banks. All these documents confirming the right to the gold pledged to the Federal Reserve from Russia in the amount of 48,600 tons, as well as income from leasing it, were deposited by the mother of Tsar Nicholas II, Maria Fedorovna Romanova, for safekeeping in one of the Swiss banks. But only heirs have conditions for access there, and this access is controlled by the Rothschild clan. Gold certificates were issued for the gold provided by Russia, which made it possible to claim the metal in parts - the royal family hid them in different places. Later, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference confirmed Russia's right to 88% of the Fed's assets.

At one time, two well-known Russian oligarchs, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, proposed to tackle this “golden” issue. But Yeltsin “didn’t understand” them, and now, apparently, that very “golden” time has come... And now this gold is remembered more and more often - though not at the state level.

On this topic

In Lahore, Pakistan, 16 police officers were arrested for the shooting of an innocent family on the streets of the city. According to eyewitnesses, the police stopped a car traveling to the wedding and brutally dealt with its driver and passengers.

People kill for this gold, fight for it, and make fortunes from it.

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

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

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

There is a long-term study, unfortunately, by the now deceased professor Vladlen Sirotkin (MGIMO) “Foreign Gold of Russia” (Moscow, 2000), where the gold and other holdings of the Romanov family, accumulated in the accounts of Western banks, are also estimated at no less than 400 billion dollars, and together with investments - more than 2 trillion dollars! In the absence of heirs from the Romanov side, the closest relatives are members of the English royal family... These are whose interests may be the background to many events of the 19th–21st centuries... By the way, it is not clear (or, conversely, understandable) for what reasons the royal house of England denied asylum to the Romanov family three times. The first time in 1916, in the apartment of Maxim Gorky, an escape was planned - the rescue of the Romanovs by kidnapping and internment of the royal couple during their visit to an English warship, which was then sent to Great Britain. The second was Kerensky's request, which was also rejected. Then the Bolsheviks’ request was not accepted. And this despite the fact that the mothers of George V and Nicholas II were sisters. In surviving correspondence, Nicholas II and George V call each other “Cousin Nicky” and “Cousin Georgie” - they were cousins ​​with an age difference of less than three years, and in their youth these guys spent a lot of time together and were very similar in appearance. As for the queen, her mother, Princess Alice, was the eldest and beloved daughter of Queen Victoria of England. At that time, England held 440 tons of gold from Russia’s gold reserves and 5.5 tons of Nicholas II’s personal gold as collateral for military loans. Now think about it: if the royal family died, then who would the gold go to? To the closest relatives! Is this the reason why cousin Georgie refused to accept cousin Nicky's family? To obtain gold, its owners had to die. Officially. And now all this needs to be connected with the burial of the royal family, which will officially testify that the owners of untold wealth are dead.

Versions of life after death

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

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

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

Investigator Sokolov was conducting two cases - one on the fact of murder and the other on the fact of disappearance. Conducted an investigation at the same time military intelligence in the person of Kirst. When the Whites left Russia, Sokolov, fearing for the collected materials, sent them to Harbin - some of his materials were lost along the way. Sokolov’s materials contained evidence of the financing of the Russian revolution by the American bankers Schiff, Kuhn and Loeb, and Ford, who was in conflict with these bankers, became interested in these materials. He even called Sokolov from France, where he settled, to the USA. When returning from the USA to France, Nikolai Sokolov was killed. Sokolov’s book was published after his death, and many people “worked” on it, removing many scandalous facts from it, so it cannot be considered completely truthful. The surviving members of the royal family were observed by people from the KGB, where a special department was created for this purpose, dissolved during perestroika. The archives of this department have been preserved. The royal family was saved by Stalin - the royal family was evacuated from Yekaterinburg through Perm to Moscow and came into the possession of Trotsky, then the People's Commissar of Defense. To further save the royal family, Stalin carried out an entire operation, stealing it from Trotsky’s people and taking them to Sukhumi, to a specially built house next to the former house of the royal family. From there, all family members were distributed to different places, Maria and Anastasia were taken to the Glinsk Hermitage (Sumy region), then Maria was transported to the Nizhny Novgorod region, where she died of illness on May 24, 1954. Anastasia subsequently married Stalin’s personal guard and lived very secluded on a small farm, died

June 27, 1980 at Volgograd region. The eldest daughters, Olga and Tatyana, were sent to the Seraphim-Diveevo convent - the empress was settled not far from the girls. But they did not live here for long. Olga, having traveled through Afghanistan, Europe and Finland, settled in Vyritsa, Leningrad Region, where she died on January 19, 1976. Tatyana lived partly in Georgia, partly in the Krasnodar Territory, was buried in the Krasnodar Territory, and died on September 21, 1992. Alexey and his mother lived at their dacha, then Alexey was transported to Leningrad, where they “did” a biography on him, and the whole world recognized him as party and Soviet leader Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin (Stalin sometimes called him Tsarevich in front of everyone). Nicholas II lived and died in Nizhny Novgorod (December 22, 1958), and the queen died in the village of Starobelskaya, Lugansk region on April 2, 1948 and was subsequently reburied in Nizhny Novgorod, where she and the emperor have a common grave. Three daughters of Nicholas II, besides Olga, had children. N.A. Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR...

Ilya Belous

Today, the tragic events of July 1918, when the Royal Family died as martyrdom, are increasingly becoming a tool for various political manipulations and indoctrination of public opinion.

Many consider the leadership of Soviet Russia, namely V.I. Lenin and Ya.M. Sverdlov, to be the direct organizers of the execution. It is very important to understand the truth about who conceived and committed this brutal crime, and why. Let's look into everything in detail, objectively using verified facts and documents.

On August 19, 1993, in connection with the discovery of the alleged burial of the royal family on the old Koptyakovskaya road near Sverdlovsk, on the instructions of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, criminal case No. 18/123666-93 was opened.

Investigator for particularly important cases of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation V.N. Solovyov, who led the criminal case into the death of the royal family, testified that not a single piece of evidence was found that the execution was sanctioned by Lenin or Sverdlov, or of any involvement in the murder.

But first things first.

In August 1917 The provisional government sent the royal family to Tobolsk.

Kerensky initially intended to send Nicholas II to England via Murmansk, but this initiative did not meet with support from either the British or the Provisional Government.

It is not clear what made Kerensky send the Romanovs to peasant-revolutionary Siberia, which was then under the rule of the Socialist Revolutionaries.

According to Karabchevsky’s lawyer, Kerensky did not rule out a bloody outcome:

“Kerensky leaned back in his chair, thought for a second and, running the index finger of his left hand along his neck, made an energetic upward gesture with it. I and everyone understood that this was a hint of hanging. - Two, three victims are probably necessary! - said Kerensky, looking around us with his half-mysterious, half-blind gaze thanks to the heavy weight hanging over his eyes upper eyelids». //Karabchevsky N.P. Revolution and Russia. Berlin, 1921. T. 2. What my eyes saw. Ch. 39.

After October revolution the Soviet government took a position on the organization of Nicholas II open court above former emperor.

February 20, 1918 At a meeting of the commission under the Council of People's Commissars, the issue of “preparing investigative material on Nikolai Romanov” was considered. Lenin spoke out for the trial of the former tsar.

April 1, 1918 The Soviet government decided to transfer the royal family from Tobolsk to Moscow. This was categorically opposed by local authorities, who believed that the royal family should remain in the Urals. They offered to transfer her to Yekaterinburg. // Kovalchenko I.D. Age-old problem Russian history// Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, No. 10, 1994. P.916.

At the same time, Soviet leaders, including Yakov Sverdlov, the issue of the security of the Romanovs was studied. In particular, April 1, 1918 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued the following resolution:

“...Instruct the Commissioner for Military Affairs to immediately form a detachment of 200 people. (of which 30 people are from Partisan detachment Central Election Commission, 20 people. from a detachment of left Socialist-Revolutionaries) and send them to Tobolsk to reinforce the guard and, if possible, immediately transport all those arrested to Moscow. This resolution is not subject to publication in the press. Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya. Sverdlov. Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee V. Avanesov.”

Academician-Secretary of the Department of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ivan Dmitrievich Kovalchenko in 1994 gives information similar to the testimony of investigator Solovyov:

“Judging by the documents we found, the fate of the royal family as a whole was not discussed in Moscow at any level. It was only about the fate of Nicholas II. It was proposed to hold a trial against him; Trotsky volunteered to be the prosecutor. The fate of Nicholas II was actually predetermined: the court could only sentence him to death. Representatives of the Urals took a different position.

They believed that it was urgent to deal with Nicholas II. A plan was even developed to kill him on the road from Tobolsk to Moscow. The Chairman of the Ural Regional Council Beloborodov wrote in his memoirs in 1920: “We believed that, perhaps, there was not even a need to deliver Nikolai to Yekaterinburg, that if provided favorable conditions during his transfer, he was to be shot on the road. Zaslavsky (commander of the Yekaterinburg detachment sent to Tobolsk - I.K.) had such an order and all the time tried to take steps to implement it, although to no avail." // Kovalchenko I.D. The age-old problem of Russian history // Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, No. 10, 1994.

April 6, 1918 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee made a new decision - to transfer Nicholas II and his family to Yekaterinburg. Such a quick change of decision is the result of confrontation between Moscow and the Urals, says academician Kovalchenko.

In a letter from the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov Ya.M. The Ural Regional Council says:

“Yakovlev’s task is to deliver |Nicholas II| to Yekaterinburg alive and hand it over to either Chairman Beloborodov or Goloshchekin.” // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 5-6.

Yakovlev Vasily Vasilyevich is a professional Bolshevik with many years of experience, a former Ural militant. Real name- Myachin Konstantin Alekseevich, pseudonyms - Stoyanovich Konstantin Alekseevich, Krylov. Yakovlev was provided with 100 revolutionary soldiers in his detachment, and he himself was endowed with emergency powers.

By this time, the leadership of the Council in Yekaterinburg decided the fate of the Romanovs in their own way - they made an unspoken decision on the need to secretly exterminate all members of the family of Nicholas II without trial or investigation during their move from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.

Chairman of the Urals Council A.G. Beloborodov recalled:

“...it is necessary to dwell on one extremely important circumstance in the line of conduct of the Regional Council. We believed that, perhaps, there was not even a need to deliver Nikolai to Yekaterinburg, that if favorable conditions were provided during his transfer, he should be shot on the road. This was the order given by the |commander of the Yekaterinburg detachment| Zaslavsky tried all the time to take steps towards its implementation, although to no avail. In addition, Zaslavsky obviously behaved in such a way that his intentions were guessed by Yakovlev, which to some extent explains the rather large-scale misunderstandings that later arose between Zaslavsky and Yakovlev.” // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 5-6.

At the same time, the Ural leadership was ready to enter into direct conflict with Moscow. An ambush was being prepared to kill Yakovlev's entire detachment.

Here is a statement from the statement of the Red Guardsman of the Ural detachment A.I. Nevolin to Commissioner Yakovlev V.V.

“... In Yekaterinburg he was a member of the Red Army in the 4th hundred... Gusyatsky... says that Commissar Yakovlev is traveling with the Moscow detachment, we need to wait for him... assistant instructor Ponomarev and instructor Bogdanov begin: “We... now decided this: on the way to Tyumen We'll make an ambush. When Yakovlev goes with Romanov, as soon as they catch up with us, you must use machine guns and rifles to cut Yakovlev’s entire detachment to the ground. And don't say anything to anyone. If they ask what kind of detachment you are, then say that you are from Moscow, and don’t say who your boss is, because this needs to be done in addition to the regional one and all the Soviets in general.” I then asked the question: “Do you mean to be robbers?” I personally don’t agree with your plans. If you need to kill Romanov, then let someone decide on his own, but I don’t allow such a thought in my head, bearing in mind that our entire armed force stands guard over the defense of Soviet power, and not for individual benefits, and people, if Commissar Yakovlev, sent after him, from the Council People's Commissars, so he must present it to where he was told. But we were not and cannot be robbers, so that because of Romanov alone we would shoot fellow Red Army soldiers like us. ... After this, Gusyatsky became even more angry with me. I see that this is starting to affect my life. Looking for exits, I finally decided to escape with Yakovlev’s detachment.” // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 5-6.

There was also a secretly approved plan by the Urals Council to liquidate the royal family by means of a train crash on the way from Tyumen to Yekaterinburg.

A set of documents related to the move of the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg indicates that the Urals Council was in sharp confrontation with the central authorities on issues related to the security of the royal family.

A telegram from the Chairman of the Urals Council A.G. Beloborodov, sent to V.I., has been preserved. Lenin, in which he complains in an ultimatum form about the actions of the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya.M. Sverdlov, in connection with his support for the actions of Commissioner V.V. Yakovlev (Myachin), aimed at the safe passage of the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.

Correspondence of Yakovlev V.V. with the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov Ya.M. shows the true intentions of the Bolsheviks of the Urals towards the royal family. Despite the clearly expressed position of Lenin V.I. and Sverdlova Y.M. about bringing the royal family to Yekaterinburg alive, the Bolsheviks of Yekaterinburg went against the Kremlin leadership in this matter and made an official decision to arrest V.V. Yakovlev. and even the use of armed force against his squad.

On April 27, 1918, Yakovlev sends a telegram to Sverdlov, in which he testifies to the attempts of his soldiers to repulse the assassination of the Royal Family by local Bolsheviks (referring to it with the code word “baggage”):

“I just brought some luggage. I want to change the route due to the following extremely important circumstances. Special people arrived from Yekaterinburg to Tobolsk before me to destroy the luggage. The special forces unit fought back and almost led to bloodshed. When I arrived, the Yekaterinburg residents gave me a hint that there was no need to carry my luggage to the place. ...They asked me not to sit next to the luggage (Petrov). This was a direct warning that I could also be destroyed. ...Having failed to achieve their goal either in Tobolsk, or on the road, or in Tyumen, the Yekaterinburg detachments decided to ambush me near Yekaterinburg. They decided that if I didn’t give them my luggage back without a fight, they decided to kill us too. ...Ekaterinburg, with the exception of Goloshchekin, has one desire: to do away with the luggage at all costs. The fourth, fifth and sixth companies of the Red Army are preparing an ambush for us. If this is at odds with the central opinion, then it is madness to carry luggage to Yekaterinburg.” // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 5-6.

When Nicholas II arrived in Yekaterinburg, local authorities provoked a crowd at the Yekaterinburg I station, which tried to carry out lynching of the family of the former emperor. Commissioner Yakovlev acted decisively, threatening those who attempted to assassinate the Tsar with machine guns. Only this made it possible to avoid the death of the royal family.

April 30, 1918 Yakovlev handed over to the representatives of the Ural Regional Council of Nicholas II, Alexandra Fedorovna, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Court Marshal V.A. Dolgorukov and life physician prof. Botkin, valet T.I. Chemodurov, footman I.L. Sednev and room girl A.S. Demidov. Dolgorukov and Sednev were arrested upon arrival and placed in the Yekaterinburg prison. The rest were sent to the house of industrialist and engineer N.N. Ipatiev.

May 23, 1918 Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna, Tatyana Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna were transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. A large group of servants and people from the entourage arrived with them. In Yekaterinburg, immediately after their arrival, Tatishchev, Gendrikova, Schneider, Nagornov, and Volkov were arrested and placed in prison. The following were placed in Ipatiev's house: Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna, Tatyana Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, the boy Sednev and footman Trupp A.E. Lackey Chemodurov was transferred from Ipatiev’s house to the Yekaterinburg prison.

June 4, 1918 At a meeting of the board of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR, the order of the Council of People's Commissars was considered, on which a decision was made: to delegate to the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars a representative from the People's Commissariat of Justice "as an investigator, Comrade Bogrov." Materials concerning Nicholas II were systematically collected. Such a trial could only take place in the capitals. In addition, V.I. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky received messages from the Urals and Siberia about the unreliability of the security of the royal family. // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 5-6. 5.4. The situation of the family and people from the circle of the former Emperor Nicholas II after the Bolsheviks came to power

Sentiment towards Nicholas II in the Urals

Archival, newspaper and memoir sources emanating from the Bolsheviks have preserved a lot of evidence that the “working masses” of Yekaterinburg and the Urals in general constantly expressed concern about the reliability of the security of the royal family, the possibility of the release of Nicholas II, and even demanded his immediate execution. If you believe the editor of the Ural Worker V. Vorobyov, “they wrote about this in letters that came to the newspaper, they talked about it at meetings and rallies.” This was probably true, and not only in the Urals. Among the archival documents there is, for example, this one.

July 3, 1918 The Council of People's Commissars received a telegram from the Kolomna district party committee. It reported that the Kolomna Bolshevik organization

“unanimously decided to demand from the Council of People’s Commissars the immediate destruction of the entire family and relatives of the former tsar, because the German bourgeoisie, together with the Russian, are restoring the tsarist regime in the captured cities.” “In case of refusal,” the Kolomna Bolsheviks threatened, “it was decided to carry out this decree on our own.” //Ioffe, G.Z. Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs / M.: Republic, 1992. P.302—303

The Ural elite was all “leftist”. This was manifested in the issue of the Brest Peace, and in the separatist aspirations of the Ural Regional Council, and in the attitude towards the deposed tsar, whom the Urals did not trust in Moscow. The Ural security officer I. Radzinsky recalled:

“The dominance in the leadership was leftist, left-communist... Beloborodov, Safarov, Nikolai Tolmachev, Evgeny Preobrazhensky - all of these were leftists.”

The party line, according to Radzinsky, was led by Goloshchekin, also a “leftist” at that time.

In their “leftism,” the Ural Bolsheviks were forced to compete with the left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists, whose influence had always been noticeable, and by the summer of 1918 had even increased. A member of the Ural Regional Party Committee, I. Akulov, wrote to Moscow back in the winter of 1918 that the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were simply “baffling” with “their unexpected radicalism.”

The Ural Bolsheviks could not and did not want to give political competitors the opportunity to reproach them for “sliding to the right.” The Social Revolutionaries presented similar advertisements. Maria Spiridonova reproached the Bolshevik Central Committee for disbanding “tsars and sub-tsars” in “the Ukraine, Crimea and abroad” and raising its hand against the Romanovs “only at the insistence of the revolutionaries,” meaning the left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists.

Commandant of the Ipatiev House (until July 4, 1918) A.D. Avdeev testified in his memoirs that a group of anarchists tried to pass a resolution that “the former tsar should be immediately executed.” Extremist groups were not limited to just demands and resolutions. // Avdeev A. Nicholas II in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg // Red news. 1928. No. 5. P. 201.

Chairman of the Yekaterinburg City Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies P.M. Bykov in his memoirs points to attempts to organize an attack on Ipatiev’s house and eliminate the Romanovs. // Bykov P. The last days of the Romanovs. Uralbook. 1926. P. 113

“In the morning they waited a long time, but in vain, for the priest to come to perform the service; everyone was busy with churches. For some reason we were not allowed into the garden during the day. Avdeev came and talked with Evg for a long time. Serg. According to him, he and the Regional Council are afraid of anarchist protests and therefore, perhaps, we will have to leave soon, probably to Moscow! He asked to prepare for departure. They immediately began to pack up, but quietly, so as not to attract the attention of the guard officials, at the special request of Avdeev.” Around 11 o'clock. In the evening he returned and said that we would stay a few more days. Therefore, on June 1, we remained in a bivouac style, without laying out anything. The weather was fine; The walk took place, as always, in two turns. Finally, after dinner, Avdeev, slightly tipsy, announced to Botkin that the anarchists had been captured and that the danger had passed and our departure was cancelled! After all the preparations it even became boring! In the evening we played bezique. // Diary of Nikolai Romanov // Red Archive. 1928. No. 2 (27). pp. 134-135

The next day, Alexandra Fedorovna wrote in her diary:

“Now they say that we are staying here, because they managed to capture the leader of the anarchists, their printing house and the entire group.” //TsGAOR. F. 640. Op.1. D.332. L.18.

Rumors of lynching of the Romanovs swept the Urals in June 1918. Moscow began sending alarming requests to Yekaterinburg. On June 20 the following telegram arrived:

“In Moscow, information spread that former Emperor Nicholas II had allegedly been killed. Provide the information you have. Manager of the Council of People's Commissars V. Bonch-Bruevich.” // TsGAOR. F. 130. Op.2. D.1109. L.34

In accordance with this request, the commander of the North Ural Group of Soviet Forces, R. Berzin, together with the military commissar of the Ural Military District, Goloshchekin, and other officials, inspected the Ipatiev House. In telegrams to the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the People's Commissariat of Military Affairs, he reported that

“All family members and Nicholas II himself are alive. All information about his murder is a provocation.” // TsGAOR. F.1235. Op.93. D.558.L.79; F.130.Op.2.D.1109.L.38

June 20, 1918 In the premises of the Postal and Telegraph Office of Yekaterinburg, a conversation took place over a direct wire between Lenin and Berzin.

The words three former officials of this office (Sibirev, Borodin and Lenkovsky), Lenin ordered Berzin:

“... to take under your protection the entire Royal Family, and to prevent any violence against it, responding in this case with your (i.e. Berzin’s) own life.” // Summary of information on the Royal Family of the Department of Military Field Control under the Commissioner for Security public order and public peace in the Perm province from 11/III/1919. Published: The Death of the Royal Family. Materials of the investigation into the murder of the Royal Family, (August 1918 - February 1920), p. 240.

Newspaper "Izvestia" June 25 and 28, 1918 published refutations of rumors and reports from some newspapers about the execution of the Romanovs in Yekaterinburg. //Ioffe, G.Z. Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs / M.: Respublika, 1992. P.303—304

Meanwhile, the White Czechs and Siberian troops were already bypassing Yekaterinburg from the south, trying to cut it off from the European part of Russia, capturing Kyshtym, Miass, Zlatoust and Shadrinsk.

As it appears, the Ural authorities made a fundamental decision to execute by July 4, 1918: on this day, commandant Avdeev, loyal to Nicholas II, was replaced by security officer Ya.M. Yurovsky. There was a change in the security of the royal family.

Security guard V.N. Netrebin wrote in his memoirs:

“Soon [after joining the internal guard on July 4, 1918 - S.V.] it was explained to us that... we might have to execute the b/ts [former tsar. - S.V.], and that we must strictly keep everything secret, everything that could happen in the house... Having received explanations from Comrade. Yurovsky that we needed to think about how best to carry out the execution, we began to discuss the issue... The day when the execution would have to be carried out was unknown to us. But we still felt that it would come soon.”

“The All-Russian Central Executive Committee does not give permission for execution!”

At the beginning of July 1918, the Ural Regional Council tried to convince Moscow to shoot the Romanovs. At this time, a member of the Presidium of the Regional Council, Philip Isaevich Goloshchekin, who knew Yakov Sverdlov well from his underground work, went there. He was in Moscow during the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets from July 4 to July 10, 1918. The congress ended with the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFSR.

According to some reports, Goloshchekin stopped at Sverdlov’s apartment. Among the main issues then could be: the defense of the Urals from the troops of the Siberian Army and the White Czechs, the possible surrender of Yekaterinburg, the fate of the gold reserves, the fate of the former tsar. It is possible that Goloshchekin tried to coordinate the imposition of a death sentence on Romanov.

Probably, Goloshchekin did not receive permission to execute Goloshchekin from Sverdlov, and the central Soviet government, represented by Sverdlov, insisted on the trial for which it was preparing. M.A. Medvedev (Kudrin), a participant in the execution of the royal family, writes:

“...When I entered [the premises of the Ural Cheka on the evening of July 16, 1918], those present were deciding what to do with the former Tsar Nicholas II Romanov and his family. Report about a trip to Moscow to Ya.M. Sverdlov was made by Philip Goloshchekin. Goloshchekin failed to obtain sanctions from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to execute the Romanov family. Sverdlov consulted with V.I. Lenin, who spoke out for bringing the royal family to Moscow and an open trial of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, whose betrayal during the First World War cost Russia dearly... Y.M. Sverdlov tried to give [Lenin] Goloshchekin’s arguments about the dangers of transporting a train of the royal family through Russia, where counter-revolutionary uprisings broke out in cities every now and then, about the difficult situation on the fronts near Yekaterinburg, but Lenin stood his ground: “Well, so what if the front is withdrawing ? Moscow is now in the deep rear! And here we will arrange a trial for them for the whole world.” At parting, Sverdlov said to Goloshchekin: “So tell it, Philip, to your comrades: the All-Russian Central Executive Committee does not give official sanction for execution.” // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 5-6

This position of the Moscow leadership must be considered in the context of the events taking place at that time on the fronts. For several months by July 1918, the situation had become increasingly critical.

Historical context

At the end of 1917, the Soviet government was strenuously trying to get out of the First World War. Great Britain sought to resume the conflict between Russia and Germany. On December 22, 1917, peace negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk. On February 10, 1918, the German coalition, in an ultimatum, demanded that the Soviet delegation accept extremely difficult peace conditions (Russia’s renunciation of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, parts of Latvia, Estonia and Belarus). Contrary to Lenin’s instructions, the head of the delegation, Trotsky, arbitrarily interrupted the peace negotiations, although the ultimatum had not yet been officially received, and declared that Soviet Russia was not signing peace, but was ending the war and demobilizing the army. The negotiations were interrupted, and soon the Austro-German troops (over 50 divisions) went on the offensive from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In Transcaucasia, on February 12, 1918, the offensive of Turkish troops began.

Trying to provoke Soviet Russia into continuing the war with Germany, the Entente governments offered it “help,” and on March 6, an English landing force occupied Murmansk under the false pretext of the need to protect the Murmansk region from the powers of the German coalition.

An open military intervention by the Entente began. // Ilya Belous / “Red” terror arose in response to international and “white” terror

Not having sufficient forces to repel Germany, the Soviet Republic was forced to sign the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty on March 3, 1918. On March 15, the Entente announced non-recognition of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and accelerated the deployment of military intervention. On April 5, Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok.

Despite its severity, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk temporarily stopped the advance of German troops in the central directions and gave the Soviet Republic a short respite.

In March - April 1918, an armed struggle unfolded in Ukraine against the occupying Austro-German troops and the Central Rada, which on February 9 concluded a “peace treaty” with Germany and its allies. Small Ukrainian Soviet units fought back to the borders of the RSFSR in the direction of Belgorod, Kursk and the Don region.

In mid-April 1918, German troops, violating the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, occupied Crimea and eliminated Soviet power there. Part of the Black Sea Fleet went to Novorossiysk, where, due to the threat of the ships being captured by the German occupiers, they were scuttled on June 18 by order of the Soviet government. German troops also landed in Finland, where they helped the Finnish bourgeoisie eliminate the revolutionary power of the working people.

The Baltic Fleet, located in Helsingfors, made the transition to Kronstadt under difficult conditions. On April 29, the German invaders in Ukraine eliminated the Central Rada, placing the puppet hetman P. P. Skoropadsky in power.

The Don Cossack counter-revolution also adopted a German orientation, again starting a civil war on the Don in mid-April.

On May 8, 1918, German units occupied Rostov, and then helped the kulak-Cossack “state” - the “Great Don Army” led by Ataman Krasnov - to take shape.

Turkey, taking advantage of the fact that the Transcaucasian Commissariat declared its independence from Soviet Russia, launched a broad intervention in Transcaucasia.

On May 25, 1918, a rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps, prepared and provoked by the Entente, began, the echelons of which were located between Penza and Vladivostok in view of the upcoming evacuation to Europe. At the same time, German troops, at the request of the Georgian Mensheviks, landed in Georgia. The rebellion caused a sharp revival of the counter-revolution. Massive counter-revolutionary uprisings unfolded in the Volga region, the Southern Urals, the Northern Caucasus, and the Trans-Caspian and Semirechensk regions. and other areas. The Civil War began to unfold with renewed vigor in the Don, North Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

Soviet power and the Soviet state were under threat of complete occupation and liquidation. The Central Committee of the Communist Party devoted all its efforts to organizing defense. Volunteer units of the Red Army were being formed throughout the country.

At the same time, the Entente allocated significant funds and agents for the creation of military-conspiratorial organizations within the country: the right-wing Socialist Revolutionary Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom led by Boris Savinkov, the right-wing Cadet monarchist National Center, the coalition Union for the Revival of Russia. The Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks supported the petty-bourgeois counter-revolution, ideologically and organizationally. Work was carried out to destabilize the internal political life in the country.

On July 5, 1918, the left Socialist Revolutionary Yakov Blumkin killed the German ambassador to Moscow under the government of the RSFSR, Count Wilhelm Mirbach, in Moscow. The terrorist attack was designed to break the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and a possible resumption of the war with Germany. Simultaneously with the terrorist attack on July 6, 1918, an uprising of the left Socialist Revolutionaries occurred in Moscow and a number of large Russian cities.

The Entente began landing large landings in Vladivostok, the bulk of which were Japanese (about 75 thousand people) and American (about 12 thousand people) troops. The intervention troops in the North, consisting of British, American, French and Italian units, were strengthened. In July, the Right Socialist Revolutionary Yaroslavl rebellion of 1918, prepared with the support of the Entente, and smaller revolts in Murom, Rybinsk, Kovrov and others took place. A Left Socialist Revolutionary rebellion broke out in Moscow, and on July 10 the commander of Eastern Front left Socialist Revolutionary Muravyov, who tried to capture Simbirsk, so that, having concluded an agreement with the White Czechs, he would move with them to Moscow.

The efforts of the interventionists and the internal counter-revolution united.

“Their war with the civil war merges into one single whole, and this constitutes the main source of the difficulties of the present moment, when the military question, military events, have again come onto the scene as the main, fundamental question of the revolution” // Lenin V.I. Full collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 37, p. 14.

English trace

Western services, based on Socialist-Revolutionary-Anarchist elements, posed a serious threat to Russia, fanning chaos and banditry in the country in opposition to the policies of the new government.

The former Minister of War of the Provisional Government and Kolchakite A.I. Verkhovsky joined the Red Army in 1919. //Verkhovsky Alexander Ivanovich. On a difficult pass.

In his memoirs, Verkhovsky wrote that he was an activist in the “Union for the Revival of Russia,” which had a military organization that trained personnel for anti-Soviet armed protests, which was financed by the “allies.”

“In March 1918, I was personally invited by the Union for the Revival of Russia to join the military headquarters of the Union. The military headquarters was an organization that had the goal of organizing an uprising against Soviet power... The military headquarters had connections with the allied missions in Petrograd. General Suvorov was in charge of relations with the allied missions... Representatives of the allied missions were interested in my assessment of the situation from the point of view the possibility of restoring... the front against Germany. I had conversations about this with General Nissel, a representative of the French mission. Military headquarters through the cashier of the headquarters Suvorov was getting cash from allied missions». //Golinkov D. L. Secret operations of the Cheka

The testimony of A. I. Verkhovsky is fully consistent with the memoirs of another figure in the Union for the Revival of Russia, V. I. Ignatiev (1874-1959, died in Chile).

In the first part of his memoirs, “Some facts and results of four years of the civil war (1917-1921),” published in Moscow in 1922, Ignatiev confirms that the organization’s source of funds was “exclusively allied”. First amount from foreign sources Ignatiev received from General A.V. Gerua, to whom General M.N. Suvorov sent him. From a conversation with Gerua, he learned that the general was instructed to send officers to the Murmansk region at the disposal of the English General F. Poole, and that funds were allocated to him for this task. Ignatiev received a certain amount from Gerua, then received money from one agent of the French mission - 30 thousand rubles.

There was a spy group in Petrograd, headed by sanitary doctor V. P. Kovalevsky. She also sent officers, mainly guards, to the English General Bullet in Arkhangelsk via Vologda. The group advocated the establishment of a military dictatorship in Russia and was supported by British funds. The representative of this group, English agent Captain G. E. Chaplin, worked in Arkhangelsk under the name Thomson. On December 13, 1918, Kovalevsky was shot on charges of creating a military organization associated with the British mission.

On January 5, 1918, the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly was preparing a coup d'etat, which was prevented by the Cheka. The English plan failed. The Constituent Assembly was dispersed.

Dzerzhinsky was aware of the counter-revolutionary activities of the socialists, mainly the Socialist Revolutionaries; their connections with British services, about the flow of their funding from the Allies.

Detailed information about the activities of the Socialist Revolutionaries in various committees “Saving the Motherland and Revolution”, “Defense of the Constituent Assembly” and others, disclosed by the Cheka, was given already in 1927 by Vera Vladimirova in her book “The Year of Service of the “Socialists” to the Capitalists. Essays on history, counter-revolution in 1918"

Russian historian and politician V. A. Myakotin, one of the founders and leaders of the Union for the Revival of Russia, also published his memoirs in 1923 in Prague “From the Recent Past. On the wrong side." According to his story, relations with the diplomatic representatives of the allies were carried out by members of the “Union for the Revival of Russia” specially authorized for this purpose. These connections were carried out through the French ambassador Noulens. Later, when the ambassadors left for Vologda, through the French consul Grenard. The French financed the “Union”, but Nulans directly stated that “the allies, in fact, do not need the assistance of Russian political organizations” and could well land their troops in Russia themselves. //Golinkov D.L. Secret operations of the Cheka.

The Russian Civil War was actively supported by British Prime Minister Lloyd George and US President Woodrow Wilson.

The US President personally supervised the work of agents to discredit Soviet power, and above all, the young government led by Lenin, both in the West and in Russia.

In October 1918, on the direct orders of Woodrow Wilson, a publication was published in Washington "German-Bolshevik conspiracy" better known as "Sisson papers", supposedly proving that the Bolshevik leadership consisted of direct agents of Germany, controlled by directives of the German General Staff. // The German-Bolshevik conspiracy / by United States. Committee on Public Information; Sisson, Edgar Grant, 1875-1948; National Board for Historical Service

The “documents” were purchased at the end of 1917 by the US Presidential Special Envoy to Russia Edgar Sisson for $25,000. The publication was published by CPI - the US Government Committee on Public Information. This committee was created by US President Woodrow Wilson and had the task of “influencing public opinion on issues of US participation in the First World War,” that is, CPI was a propaganda structure serving the US military department. The committee existed from April 14, 1917 to June 30, 1919.

The “documents” were fabricated by Polish journalist and traveler Ferdinand Ossendowski. They allowed the myth to spread throughout Europe about the leader of the Soviet state, Lenin, who allegedly “made a revolution with German money.”

Sisson's mission was "brilliant." He “obtained” 68 documents, some of which allegedly confirmed Lenin’s connection with the Germans and even the direct dependence of the Council of People’s Commissars on the Government of Kaiser Germany until the spring of 1918. More details about the forged documents can be found on the website of Academician Yu. K. Begunov.

Counterfeits continue to spread in modern Russia. Thus, in 2005, the documentary film “Secrets of Intelligence. Revolution in a suitcase."

Murder

In July, the White Czechs and White Guards captured Simbirsk, Ufa and Yekaterinburg, where the “regional government of the Urals” was created. Germany demanded that the Kremlin give permission to send a battalion of German troops to Moscow to protect its subjects.

Under these conditions, the execution of the royal family could have a negative impact on the development of relations with Germany, since the former Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses were German princesses. Given the current situation, under certain conditions, the extradition of one or more members of the royal family to Germany was not excluded in order to mitigate the serious conflict caused by the murder of the German ambassador Mirbach.

On July 16, 1918, a telegram arrived from Petrograd to Moscow with a quote from another telegram, from a member of the presidium of the Ural Regional Council F.I. Goloshchekin to Moscow:

“July 16, 1918. Submitted 16.VII.1918 [at] 5:50 p.m. Accepted 16.VII.1918 [at] 9:22 p.m. From Petrograd. Smolny. HP 142.28 Moscow, Kremlin, copy to Lenin.
From Yekaterinburg the following is transmitted via direct wire: “Inform Moscow that the [trial] agreed upon with Filippov due to military circumstances cannot be delayed, we cannot wait. If your opinions are contrary, please tell us right now, out of turn. Goloshchekin, Safarov”
Contact Yekaterinburg about this yourself
Zinoviev."

At that time, there was no direct connection between Yekaterinburg and Moscow, so the telegram went to Petrograd, and from Petrograd Zinoviev sent it to Moscow, to the Kremlin. The telegram arrived in Moscow on July 16, 1818 at 21:22. In Yekaterinburg it was already 23 hours 22 minutes.

“At this time, the Romanovs were already offered to go down to the execution room. We don’t know whether Lenin and Sverdlov read the telegram before the first shots were fired, but we know that the telegram did not say anything about family and servants, so blaming the Kremlin leaders for the murder of children is at least unfair,” says the investigator Solovyov in an interview with Pravda

On July 17, at 12 noon, a telegram with the following content was received in Moscow addressed to Lenin from Yekaterinburg:

“In view of the approach of the enemy to Yekaterinburg and the disclosure by the Extraordinary Commission of a large White Guard conspiracy aimed at kidnapping the former Tsar and his family... by decision of the Presidium of the Regional Council, Nikolai Romanov was shot on the night of July 16th to 17th. His family was evacuated to a safe place.” // Heinrich Ioffe. Revolution and the Romanov family

Thus, Yekaterinburg lied to Moscow: The whole family was killed.

Lenin did not immediately learn about the murder. On July 16, the editors of the Danish newspaper National Tidende sent Lenin the following request:

“There are rumors here that the former king has been killed. Please report the actual state of affairs." // IN AND. Lenin. Unknown documents. 1891-1922 M., Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN). 2000. p. 243

Lenin sent a reply by telegraph:

"National Tidende. Copenhagen. The rumor is false, the former Tsar is unharmed, all rumors are just lies of the capitalist press.” //IN AND. Lenin. Unknown documents. 1981-1922 M., Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN). 2000. p. 243

Here is the conclusion of the ICR investigator on particularly important cases of Solovyov:

“The investigation has reliably established that Yakov Mikhailovich (Yankel Khaimovich) Yurovsky, his deputy Grigory Petrovich Nikulin, security officer Mikhail Aleksandrovich Medvedev (Kudrin), head of the 2nd Ural squad Pyotr Zakharovich Ermakov, his assistant Stepan Petrovich Vaganov, security guard Pavel took part in the execution Spiridonovich Medvedev, security officer Alexey Georgievich Kabanov. The participation of security guard Viktor Nikiforovich Netrebin, Yan Martynovich Tselms and Red Guard Andrei Andreevich Strekotin in the execution is not excluded. There is no reliable information about the remaining participants in the execution.

According to the national composition, the “firing” team included Russians, Latvians, one Jew (Yurovsky), possibly one Austrian or Hungarian.

The indicated persons, as well as other participants in the execution after Yurovsky’s speech by Ya.M. the verdict began indiscriminate shooting, and the shooting was carried out not only in the room where the execution was carried out, but also from the adjacent room. After the first salvo, it turned out that Tsarevich Alexei, the Tsar’s daughters, the maid A.S. Demidova and Dr. E.S. Botkin is showing signs of life. Screamed Grand Duchess Anastasia, the maid A.S. Demidova rose to her feet, Tsarevich Alexei remained alive for a long time. They were shot with pistols and revolvers, Ermakov P.Z. finished off the survivors with a rifle bayonet. After death was confirmed, all the corpses began to be transferred to the truck.

As the investigation established, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, in Ipatiev’s house in Yekaterinburg, the following were shot: former Emperor Nicholas II (Romanov), former Empress Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova, their children - Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna Romanova, Tatyana Nikolaevna Romanova, Maria Nikolaevna Romanova and Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, physician Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, maid Anna Stepanovna Demidova, cook Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov and footman Aloisy Egorovich Trupp.”

The version that the murder was “ritual” is often discussed, that the corpses of members of the royal family were beheaded after death. This version is not confirmed by the results of forensic examination.

“To investigate the possible post-mortem decapitation, the necessary forensic medical studies were carried out on all sets of skeletons. According to the categorical conclusion of the forensic medical examination on cervical vertebrae skeletons No. 1-9 there are no traces that could indicate post-mortem decapitation. At the same time, the version about the possible opening of the burial in 1919-1946 was checked. Investigative and expert data indicate that the burial was not opened until 1979, and during this opening the remains of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were not touched. Inspection of the FSB Directorate for Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk region showed that the FSB does not have data on the possible opening of the burial in the period from 1919 to 1978.” // Resolution to terminate criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, paragraphs 7-9.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not punish the Ural Regional Council for arbitrariness. Some consider this evidence that the sanction for murder still existed. Others - that the central government did not enter into conflict with the Ural government, since in the conditions of the successful offensive of the Whites, the loyalty of the local Bolsheviks, and the propaganda of the Socialist Revolutionaries about Lenin’s slide “to the right” were more important factors than the disobedience and execution of the Romanovs. The Bolsheviks may have feared a split under difficult conditions.

People's Commissar of Agriculture in the first Soviet government, Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR V.P. Milyutin recalled:

“I returned late from the Council of People's Commissars. There were “current” matters. During the discussion of the health care project, Semashko’s report, Sverdlov entered and sat down in his place on the chair behind Ilyich. Semashko finished. Sverdlov came up, leaned towards Ilyich and said something.
- Comrades, Sverdlov asks for the floor for a message.
“I must say,” Sverdlov began in his usual tone, “a message has been received that in Yekaterinburg, by order of the regional Council, Nikolai was shot... Nikolai wanted to escape.” The Czechoslovaks were approaching. The Presidium of the Central Election Commission decided to approve...
“Let’s now move on to an article-by-article reading of the draft,” suggested Ilyich...” // Sverdlova K. T. Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov. - 4th. - M.: Young Guard, 1985.

“On July 8, the first meeting of the Presidium of the Central I.K. of the 5th convocation took place. Comrade presided. Sverdlov. Members of the Presidium were present: Avanesov, Sosnovsky, Teodorovich, Vladimirsky, Maksimov, Smidovich, Rosengoltz, Mitrofanov and Rozin.
Chairman Comrade Sverdlov announces a message just received via direct wire from the Regional Ural Council about the execution of the former Tsar Nikolai Romanov.
In recent days, the capital of the Red Urals, Yekaterinburg, was seriously threatened by the approach of Czech-Slovak gangs. At the same time, a new conspiracy of counter-revolutionaries was uncovered, with the goal of wresting the crowned executioner from the hands of Soviet power. In view of this, the Presidium of the Ural Regional Council decided to shoot Nikolai Romanov, which was carried out on July 16th.
The wife and son of Nikolai Romanov were sent to a safe place. Documents about the uncovered conspiracy were sent to Moscow by special courier.
Having made this message, Comrade. Sverdlov recalls the story of the transfer of Nikolai Romanov from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg after the discovery of the same organization of White Guards, which was preparing the escape of Nikolai Romanov. IN Lately it was intended to bring the former king to trial for all his crimes against the people, and only recent events prevented this from happening.
The Presidium of the Central I.K., having discussed all the circumstances that forced the Ural Regional Council to decide to shoot Nikolai Romanov, decided:
The All-Russian Central I.K., represented by its Presidium, recognizes the decision of the Ural Regional Council as correct.”

Historian Ioffe believes that the fateful role in the fate of the royal family was played by specific people: head of the Ural party organization and military commissar of the Ural region F.I. Goloshchekin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Ural Regional Council A. Beloborodov, and member of the board of the Ural Cheka, commandant of the “special purpose house” Ya.M. Yurovsky. //Ioffe, G.Z. Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs / M.: Republic, 1992. P.311—312 Golo

It should be noted that in the summer of 1918, an entire “campaign” was carried out in the Urals to exterminate the Romanovs.

At night from 12 to 13 June 1918 to a hotel in Perm, where they lived in exile Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich and his personal secretary and friend Brian Johnson, several armed people appeared. They took their victims into the forest and killed them. The remains have not yet been found. The murder was presented to Moscow as the abduction of Mikhail Alexandrovich by his supporters or a secret escape, which was used by local authorities as a pretext to tighten the regime of detention of all exiled Romanovs: the royal family in Yekaterinburg and the grand dukes in Alapaevsk and Vologda.

At night from 17 to 18 July 1918, simultaneously with the execution of the royal family in the Ipatiev House, the murder of six grand dukes who were in Alapaevsk was committed. The victims were taken to an abandoned mine and dumped into it.

The corpses were discovered only on October 3, 1918, after policeman T.P. Malshikov. excavations in an abandoned coal mine located 12 versts from the city of Alapaevsk at the fork in the roads leading from the city of Alapaevsk to the Verkhotursky tract and to the Verkhne-Sinyachikhinsky plant. The doctor of the military hospital train No. 604 Klyachkin, on the instructions of the chief of police of Alapaevsk, opened the corpses and found the following:

“Based on the data of the forensic autopsy of a citizen of Petrograd, doctor Fedor Semenovich REMEZ, I conclude:
Death occurred from hemorrhage of the pleural cavity and hemorrhages under the dura mater due to a bruise.
I consider the injuries from the bruise to be fatal...
1. Death b. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich occurred from hemorrhage under the hard meninges and violations of the integrity of the brain substance as a result of a gunshot wound.
The indicated damage is classified as fatal.
2. Death b. Prince John Konstantinovich's death occurred from hemorrhage under the dura mater and into both pleural cavities. The indicated injuries could have occurred from blows with a blunt hard object or from bruises when falling from a height onto some hard object.
3. Death b. Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich's death occurred from hemorrhage under the dura mater and in the area of ​​the pleural sacs. The indicated injuries occurred either as a result of blows to the head and chest with some hard blunt object, or from a bruise when falling from a height. The damage is classified as fatal.
4. Death b. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna suffered from hemorrhage under the dura mater. This damage could occur from a blow to the head with some blunt heavy object or from a fall from a height. The damage is classified as fatal.
5. The death of Prince Vladimir Paley occurred from hemorrhages under the dura mater and into the substance of the brain and into the pleura. These injuries could occur from a fall from a height or from blows to the head and chest with a blunt, hard instrument. The damage is classified as fatal.
6. Death b. Prince Igor Konstantinovich's death occurred from hemorrhage under the dura mater and disruption of the integrity of the cranial bones and base of the skull and from hemorrhages into the pleural cavity and into the peritoneal cavity. These injuries occurred from blows from any blunt hard object or from a fall from a height. The damage is classified as fatal.
7. The death of nun Varvara Yakovleva occurred from hemorrhage under the dura mater. This damage could have occurred from blows from a blunt hard object or from a fall from a height.
This entire act was drawn up in accordance with the most fundamental justice and conscience, in accordance with the rules of medical science and out of duty, which we certify with our signatures...”

Investigator Sokolov, Judicial Investigator for Particularly Important Cases of the Omsk District Court N.A. Sokolov, whom Kolchak instructed in February 1919 to continue conducting the case of the murder of the Romanovs, testified:

“Both the Yekaterinburg and Alapaevsk murders are the product of the same will of the same individuals.” // Sokolov N. Murder of the royal family. P. 329.

Obviously: incitement of the Ural Bolshevik elite to the murder of the royal family, and the Socialist Revolutionaries inciting such public demands in the Urals; material and advisory support for the White movement; sabotage activities of the counter-revolution inside Russia; attempts to incite a conflict between Russia and Germany; accusing the Soviet leadership of “involvement in German intelligence,” which was allegedly the reason for its reluctance to continue the war with Germany - all links in the same chain that stretches to the British and American intelligence services. We should not forget: such a policy of clash between Russia and Germany was supported by British and American bankers literally a few years after the events we are considering, taking up Nazi financing war machine, and fanning the fire of a new World War. // .

At the same time, even during World War II, the Third Reich, with all its sophisticated propaganda, did not release any German intelligence documents that would indicate connections with Lenin. But what a moral blow it would be to Leninism, to the system of ideological coordinates of the Red Army soldiers who went into battle under Lenin’s banners, and in general to all Soviet citizens! Obviously: such documents simply did not exist, just as Lenin’s connection with German intelligence did not exist.

Let us note: the version that the execution of the Royal Family was initiated by the Soviet leadership does not find any scientific confirmation, just like the myth of the “ritual murder”, which today has become the core of monarchist propaganda, through which Western intelligence services incite Black Hundred, anti-Semitic extremism in Russia.

The murder of the Romanov family gave rise to many rumors and conjectures, and we will try to figure out who ordered the murder of the Tsar.

Version one "Secret Directive"

One of the versions, which is often and very unanimously preferred by Western scientists, is that all the Romanovs were destroyed in accordance with some “secret directive” received from the government in Moscow.

It was this version that investigator Sokolov adhered to, setting it out in his book, filled with various documents, about the murder of the royal family. The same point of view is expressed by two other authors who personally took part in the investigation in 1919: General Dieterichs, who received instructions to “monitor” the progress of the investigation, and London Times correspondent Robert Wilton.

The books they wrote are the most important sources for understanding the dynamics of developments, but - like Sokolov’s book - they are distinguished by a certain bias: Dieterichs and Wilton strive at any cost to prove that the Bolsheviks who operated in Russia were monsters and criminals, but just pawns in the hands of “non-Russians.” "elements, that is, a handful of Jews.

In some right-wing circles of the white movement - namely, the authors we mentioned adjoined them - anti-Semitic sentiments manifested themselves at that time in extreme forms: insisting on the existence of a conspiracy of the “Judeo-Masonic” elite, they explained by this all the events that took place, from the revolution to the murder of the Romanovs, blaming the crimes solely on the Jews.

We know practically nothing about a possible “secret directive” coming from Moscow, but we are well aware of the intentions and movements of various members of the Urals Council.

The Kremlin continued to evade making any concrete decision regarding the fate of the imperial family. Perhaps, at first, the Moscow leadership was thinking about secret negotiations with Germany and intended to use the former tsar as their trump card. But then, once again, the principle of “proletarian justice” prevailed: they had to be judged in a show open trial and thereby demonstrate to the people and the whole world the grandiose meaning of the revolution.

Trotsky, filled with romantic fanaticism, saw himself as a public prosecutor and dreamed of experiencing moments worthy of the significance of the Great French Revolution. Sverdlov was instructed to deal with this issue, and the Urals Council was supposed to prepare the process itself.

However, Moscow was too far from Yekaterinburg and could not fully assess the situation in the Urals, which was rapidly escalating: the White Cossacks and White Czechs successfully and quickly advanced towards Yekaterinburg, and the Red Army soldiers fled without offering resistance.

The situation was becoming critical, and it even seemed that the revolution could hardly be saved; in this difficult situation, when Soviet power could fall from minute to minute, the very idea of ​​holding a show trial seemed anachronistic and unrealistic.

There is evidence that the Presidium of the Urals Council and the regional Cheka discussed with the leadership of the “center” the issue of the fate of the Romanovs, and precisely in connection with the complicated situation.

In addition, it is known that at the end of June 1918, the military commissar of the Ural region and member of the presidium of the Urals Council, Philip Goloshchekin, went to Moscow to decide the fate of the imperial family. We do not know exactly how these meetings with government representatives ended: we only know that Goloshchekin was received at the house of Sverdlov, his great friend, and that he returned to Yekaterinburg on July 14, two days before the fateful night.

The only source that speaks of the existence of a “secret directive” from Moscow is Trotsky’s diary, in which the former People’s Commissar claims that he learned about the execution of the Romanovs only in August 1918 and that Sverdlov told him about it.

However, the significance of this evidence is not too great, since we know another statement by the same Trotsky. The fact is that in the thirties, the memoirs of a certain Besedovsky, a former Soviet diplomat who fled to the West, were published in Paris. An interesting detail: Besedovsky worked together with the Soviet ambassador in Warsaw, Pyotr Voikov, an “old Bolshevik” who had a dizzying career.

This was the same Voikov who - while still commissar of food for the Ural region - got sulfuric acid to pour it over the corpses of the Romanovs. Having become an ambassador, he himself would die a violent death on the platform of the Warsaw station: on June 7, 1927, Voikova was shot with seven shots from a pistol by a nineteen-year-old student and “Russian patriot” Boris Koverda, who decided to avenge the Romanovs.

But let's return to Trotsky and Besedovsky. The memoirs of the former diplomat contain a story - allegedly written down from Voikov's words - about the murder in the Ipatiev House. Among other numerous fictions, the book contains one absolutely incredible one: Stalin turns out to be a direct participant in the bloody massacre.

Subsequently, Besedovsky will become famous precisely as the author of fictional stories; to the accusations that fell from all sides, he replied that no one was interested in the truth and that he main goal was to lead the reader by the nose. Unfortunately, already in exile, blinded by hatred of Stalin, he believed the author of the memoirs and noted the following: “According to Besedovsky, the regicide was the work of Stalin...”

There is another piece of evidence that can be considered confirmation that the decision to execute the entire imperial family was made “outside” Yekaterinburg. It's about again about Yurovsky’s “Note”, which talks about the order to execute the Romanovs.

We should not forget that the “Note” was compiled in 1920, two years after the bloody events, and that in some places Yurovsky’s memory fails: for example, he confuses the cook’s surname, calling him Tikhomirov, not Kharitonov, and also forgets that Demidova was a maid, not a maid of honor.

You can put forward another hypothesis, more plausible, and try to explain some not entirely clear passages in the “Note” as follows: these short memoirs were intended for the historian Pokrovsky and, probably, with the first phrase the former commandant wanted to minimize the responsibility of the Urals Council and, accordingly, his own own. The fact is that by 1920, both the goals of the struggle and the political situation itself had changed dramatically.

In his other memoirs, dedicated to the execution of the royal family and still unpublished (they were written in 1934), he no longer talks about the telegram, and Pokrovsky, touching on this topic, mentions only a certain “telephonogram”.

Now let’s look at the second version, which perhaps looks more plausible and appealed more to Soviet historians, since it relieved the top party leaders of all responsibility.

According to this version, the decision to execute the Romanovs was made by members of the Urals Council, and completely independently, without even applying for sanction to the central government. Yekaterinburg politicians “had” to go to such lengths extreme measures due to the fact that the Whites were rapidly advancing and it was impossible to leave the former sovereign to the enemy: to use the terminology of that time, Nicholas II could become a “living banner of counter-revolution.”

There is no information - or it has not yet been published - that the Urals Council sent a message to the Kremlin about its decision before the execution.

The Urals Council clearly wanted to hide the truth from the Moscow leaders and, in connection with this, gave two false information of paramount importance: on the one hand, it was claimed that the family of Nicholas II was “evacuated to a safe place” and, moreover, the Council allegedly had documents confirming the existence of a White Guard conspiracy.

As to the first statement, there is no doubt that it was a shameful lie; but the second statement also turned out to be a hoax: indeed, documents related to some major White Guard conspiracy could not exist, since there were not even individuals capable of organizing and carrying out such a kidnapping. And the monarchists themselves considered it impossible and undesirable to restore autocracy with Nicholas II as sovereign: the former tsar was no longer interested in anyone and, with general indifference, he walked towards his tragic death.

Third version: messages “via direct wire”

In 1928, a certain Vorobyov, editor of the Ural Worker newspaper, wrote his memoirs. Ten years have passed since the execution of the Romanovs, and - no matter how creepy what I’m about to say may sound - this date was considered as an “anniversary”: many works were devoted to this topic, and their authors considered it their duty to boast of direct participation in the murder.

Vorobyov was also a member of the presidium of the executive committee of the Urals Council, and thanks to his memoirs - although there is nothing sensational in them for us - one can imagine how communication took place “via direct wire” between Yekaterinburg and the capital: the leaders of the Urals Council dictated the text to the telegraph operator, and in Moscow Sverdlov I personally tore it off and read the tape. It follows that Yekaterinburg leaders had the opportunity to contact the “center” at any time. So, the first phrase of Yurovsky’s “Notes” - “On July 16, a telegram was received from Perm ...” - is inaccurate.

At 21:00 on July 17, 1918, the Urals Council sent a second message to Moscow, but this time a very ordinary telegram. There was, however, something special in it: only the recipient’s address and the sender’s signature were written in letters, and the text itself was a set of numbers. Obviously, disorder and negligence have always been constant companions of the Soviet bureaucracy, which was just being formed at that time, and even more so in an atmosphere of hasty evacuation: leaving the city, they forgot many valuable documents at the Yekaterinburg telegraph office. Among them was a copy of that same telegram, and it, of course, ended up in the hands of the whites.

This document came to Sokolov along with the investigation materials and, as he writes in his book, immediately attracted his attention, took up a lot of his time and caused a lot of trouble. While still in Siberia, the investigator tried in vain to decipher the text, but he succeeded only in September 1920, when he was already living in the West. The telegram was addressed to the Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Gorbunov and signed by the Chairman of the Urals Council Beloborodov. Below we present it in full:

"Moscow. Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Gorbunov with a reverse check. Tell Sverdlov that the whole family suffered the same fate as the head. Officially, the family will die during the evacuation. Beloborodov."

Until now, this telegram has provided one of the main evidence that all members of the imperial family were killed; therefore, it is not surprising that its authenticity was often questioned, moreover by those authors who willingly fell for fantastic versions about one or another of the Romanovs who allegedly managed to avoid a tragic fate. There is no doubt about the authenticity of this telegram serious reasons, especially when compared with other similar documents.

Sokolov used Beloborodov's message to show the sophisticated deceit of all Bolshevik leaders; he believed that the deciphered text confirmed the existence of a preliminary agreement between the Yekaterinburg leaders and the “center.” Probably, the investigator was not aware of the first report transmitted “via direct wire,” and in the Russian version of his book the text of this document is missing.

Let us abstract, however, from Sokolov’s personal point of view; we have two pieces of information transmitted nine hours apart, with the true state of affairs only revealed at the last moment. Giving preference to the version according to which the decision to execute the Romanovs was made by the Urals Council, we can conclude that, by not immediately reporting everything that happened, the Yekaterinburg leaders wanted to soften a possibly negative reaction from Moscow.

Two pieces of evidence can be cited to support this version. The first belongs to Nikulin, deputy commandant of the Ipatiev House (that is, Yurovsky) and his active assistant during the execution of the Romanovs. Nikulin also felt the need to write his memoirs, clearly considering himself - like his other “colleagues” - an important historical figure; in his memoirs, he openly states that the decision to destroy the entire royal family was made by the Urals Council, completely independently and “at your own peril and risk.”

The second evidence belongs to Vorobyov, already familiar to us. In a book of memoirs, a former member of the presidium of the executive committee of the Urals Council says the following:

“...When it became obvious that we could not hold Yekaterinburg, the question of the fate of the royal family was raised head on. There was nowhere to take the former tsar, and it was far from safe to take him. And at one of the meetings of the Regional Council, we decided to shoot the Romanovs, without waiting for their trial.”

Obeying the principle of “class hatred,” people should not have felt the slightest pity towards Nicholas II “Bloody” and utter a word about those who shared his terrible fate with him.

Version analysis

And now the following completely logical question arises: was it within the competence of the Urals Council to independently, without even turning to the central government for sanction, make a decision on the execution of the Romanovs, thus taking upon itself all political responsibility for what they had done?

The first circumstance that should be taken into account is the outright separatism inherent in many local Soviets during the civil war. In this sense, the Urals Council was no exception: it was considered “explosive” and had already managed to openly demonstrate its disagreement with the Kremlin several times. In addition, representatives of the left Socialist Revolutionaries and many anarchists were active in the Urals. With their fanaticism they pushed the Bolsheviks to demonstrate.

The third motivating circumstance was that some members of the Urals Council - including Chairman Beloborodov himself, whose signature is on the second telegraph message - held extreme left-wing views; these people survived many years of exile and royal prisons, hence their specific worldview. Although the members of the Urals Council were relatively young, they all went through the school of professional revolutionaries, and they had years of underground activity and “serving the cause of the party” behind them.

The fight against tsarism in any form was the only purpose of their existence, and therefore they did not even have any doubts that the Romanovs, “enemies of the working people,” should have been destroyed. In that tense situation, when the civil war was raging and the fate of the revolution seemed to hang in the balance, the execution of the imperial family seemed to be a historical necessity, a duty that had to be fulfilled without falling into sympathetic moods.

In 1926, Pavel Bykov, who replaced Beloborodov as chairman of the Urals Council, wrote a book entitled “The Last Days of the Romanovs”; as we will see later, this was the only Soviet source that confirmed the fact of the murder of the royal family, but this book was very soon confiscated. This is what Tanyaev writes in the introductory article: “This task was completed by the Soviet government with its characteristic courage - to take all measures to save the revolution, as if with outside arbitrary, lawless and harsh they seemed.”

And one more thing: “...for the Bolsheviks, the court in no way had the significance of a body clarifying the true guilt of this “holy family.” If the trial had any meaning, it was only as a very good propaganda tool for the political education of the masses, and nothing more.” And here is another one of the most “interesting” passages from Tanyaev’s preface: “The Romanovs had to be liquidated in an emergency manner.

In this case, the Soviet government showed extreme democracy: it did not make an exception for the all-Russian murderer and shot him just like an ordinary bandit.” The heroine of A. Rybakov’s novel “Children of the Arbat”, Sofya Alexandrovna, was right, who found the strength to shout in the face of her brother, an unbending Stalinist, the following words: “If the tsar had judged you according to your laws, he would have lasted another thousand years...”

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as life -medic Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexey 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 Alexandra 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 of the State Duma, Nicholas II signed an abdication of the throne for himself and his son Alexei in favor of the younger brother Mikhail Alexandrovich.

After his abdication, from March to August 1917, Nicholas and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe 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. Having not found evidence and documents that clearly convicted them of this, the Provisional Government was inclined to deport them abroad (to Great Britain).

In August 1917, the arrested were transported to Tobolsk. The main idea of ​​the Bolshevik leadership was an open trial of the former emperor. In April 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the Romanovs to Moscow. Vladimir Lenin spoke out for the trial of the former tsar; Leon Trotsky was supposed to be the main accuser of Nicholas II. However, information appeared about the existence of “White Guard conspiracies” to kidnap the Tsar, the concentration of “conspiratorial officers” in Tyumen and Tobolsk for this purpose, 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 transported 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 shoot the former tsar.

The commandant of the Special Purpose House, Yakov Yurovsky, was entrusted with organizing the execution of all members of the royal family, Doctor Botkin and the servants who were in the house.

© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg

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

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

This is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I invited everyone to stand up. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies The Urals decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: “Shoot.” I shot first and killed Nikolai on the spot. The shooting 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 was not able to stop this shooting, which had become careless. But when, finally, I managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Doctor Botkin was lying, leaning on the elbow of his right hand, as if in a resting position, with a revolver shot ended him. Alexey, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Comrade Ermakov wanted to finish the matter with a bayonet. But, however, this did not succeed. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond armor like bras). I was forced to shoot each one in turn."

After death was confirmed, 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 Ipatiev’s house.

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

On July 17, 1998, the burial of the remains of members of the royal family took place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg.

In October 2008, the presidium Supreme Court The Russian Federation has decided to rehabilitate Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. Servants and associates of the royal family who were executed by the Bolsheviks or 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 into the circumstances of the death and burial of the last Russian emperor, members of his family and people from his entourage, shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution responsibility and death of persons who committed premeditated murder" (subparagraphs 3 and 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR).

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

On January 14, 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that the resolution was brought in accordance with the court decision and the criminal case regarding the death of representatives of the Russian Imperial House and people from their entourage in 1918-1919 was discontinued. The 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, a resolution was issued to terminate the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family. The 800-page resolution outlines 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 the relics of royal martyrs, the Russian Imperial House supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue. The director of the chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic testing is not enough.

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

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Interview with Vladimir Sychev on the Romanov case

In June 1987, I was in Venice as part of the French press accompanying François Mitterrand to the G7 summit. During breaks between pools, an Italian journalist approached me and asked me something in French. Realizing from my accent that I was not French, he looked at my French accreditation and asked where I was from. “Russian,” I answered. - Is that so? - my interlocutor was surprised. Under his arm he held an Italian newspaper, from which he translated a huge, half-page article.

Dies in private clinic in Switzerland, sister Pascalina. She was known to the entire Catholic world, because... passed with the future Pope Pius XXII from 1917, when he was still Cardinal Pacelli in Munich (Bavaria), until his death in the Vatican in 1958. She had such a strong influence on him that he entrusted her with the entire administration of the Vatican, and when the cardinals asked for an audience with the Pope, she decided who was worthy of such an audience and who was not. This is a short retelling of a long article, the meaning of which was that we had to believe the phrase uttered at the end and not by a mere mortal. Sister Pascalina asked to invite a lawyer and witnesses because she did not want to take her to the grave the secret of your life. When they appeared, she only said that the woman buried in the village Morcote, near Lake Maggiore - indeed daughter of the Russian Tsar - Olga!!

I convinced my Italian colleague that this was a gift from Fate, and that it was useless to resist it. Having learned that he was from Milan, I told him that I would not fly back to Paris on the presidential press plane, but he and I would go to this village for half a day. We went there after the summit. It turned out that this was no longer Italy, but Switzerland, but we quickly found a village, a cemetery and a cemetery watchman who led us to the grave. On the gravestone there is a photograph of an elderly woman and an inscription in German: Olga Nikolaevna(no surname), eldest daughter of Nikolai Romanov, Tsar of Russia, and dates of life - 1985-1976!!!

The Italian journalist was an excellent translator for me, but he clearly didn’t want to stay there for the whole day. All I had to do was ask questions.

When did she live here? - In 1948.

Did she say that she was the daughter of the Russian Tsar? - Of course, the whole village knew about it.

Did this get into the press? - Yes.

How did the other Romanovs react to this? Did they sue? - They served it.

And she lost? - Yes, I lost.

In this case, she had to pay the legal costs of the other party. - She paid.

She worked? - No.

Where does she get the money from? - Yes, the whole village knew that the Vatican was supporting her!!

The ring has closed. I went to Paris and began to look for what was known on this issue... And quickly came across a book by two English journalists.

Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published a book in 1979 "Dossier on the Tsar"(“The Romanov Case, or the Execution that Never Happened”). They started with the fact that if the classification of secrecy from state archives is removed after 60 years, then in 1978 60 years will expire from the date of signing Treaty of Versailles, and you can “dig up” something there by looking into the declassified archives. That is, at first the idea was just to look... And they very quickly got to telegrams the British ambassador to his Foreign Ministry that the royal family was taken from Yekaterinburg to Perm. There is no need to explain to BBC professionals that this is a sensation. They rushed to Berlin.

It quickly became clear that the Whites, having entered Yekaterinburg on July 25, immediately appointed an investigator to investigate the execution of the royal family. Nikolai Sokolov, whose book everyone still refers to, is the third investigator who received the case only at the end of February 1919! Then a simple question arises: who were the first two and what did they report to their superiors? So, the first investigator named Nametkin, appointed by Kolchak, having worked for three months and declaring that he is a professional, the matter is simple, and he does not need additional time (and the Whites were advancing and did not doubt their victory at that time - i.e. all the time is yours, don’t rush, work!), puts a report on the table stating that there was no execution, but there was a mock execution. Kolchak shelved this report and appointed a second investigator named Sergeev. He also works for three months and at the end of February hands Kolchak the same report with the same words (“I’m a professional, it’s a simple matter, no additional time is needed,” there was no execution- there was a mock execution).

Here it is necessary to explain and remind that it was the Whites who overthrew the Tsar, not the Reds, and they sent him into exile in Siberia! Lenin was in Zurich these February days. No matter what ordinary soldiers say, the white elite are not monarchists, but republicans. And Kolchak did not need a living Tsar. I advise those who have doubts to read Trotsky’s diaries, where he writes that “if the Whites had nominated any tsar - even a peasant one - we would not have lasted even two weeks”! These are the words of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army and the ideologist of the Red Terror!! Please believe me.

Therefore, Kolchak already appoints “his” investigator Nikolai Sokolov and gives him a task. And Nikolai Sokolov also works for only three months - but for a different reason. The Reds entered Yekaterinburg in May, and he retreated along with the Whites. He took the archives, but what did he write?

1. He did not find any corpses, but for the police of any country in any system “no bodies - no murder” is a disappearance! After all, when arresting serial killers, the police demand to see where the corpses are hidden!! You can say anything, even about yourself, but the investigator needs physical evidence!

And Nikolai Sokolov “hangs the first noodles on our ears”: “thrown into a mine, filled with acid”. Nowadays they prefer to forget this phrase, but we heard it until 1998! And for some reason no one ever doubted it. Is it possible to fill a mine with acid? But there won't be enough acid! In the local history museum of Yekaterinburg, where director Avdonin (the same one, one of the three who “accidentally” found the bones on the Starokotlyakovskaya road, cleared before them by three investigators in 1918-19), there is a certificate about those soldiers on the truck that they had 78 liters of gasoline (not acid). In the month of July in the Siberian taiga, with 78 liters of gasoline, you can burn the entire Moscow zoo! No, they went back and forth, first they threw it into the mine, poured it with acid, and then took it out and hid it under the sleepers...

By the way, on the night of the “execution” from July 16 to 17, 1918, a huge train with the entire local Red Army, the local Central Committee and the local Cheka left Yekaterinburg for Perm. The Whites entered on the eighth day, and Yurovsky, Beloborodov and his comrades shifted responsibility to two soldiers? Inconsistency, - tea, we were not dealing with a peasant revolt. And if they shot at their own discretion, they could have done it a month earlier.

2. The second “noodle” by Nikolai Sokolov - he describes the basement of the Ipatievsky house, publishes photographs where it is clear that there are bullets in the walls and ceiling (when they stage an execution, this is apparently what they do). Conclusion - the women's corsets were filled with diamonds, and the bullets ricocheted! So, this is it: the king from the throne and into exile in Siberia. Money in England and Switzerland, and they sew diamonds into corsets to sell to peasants at the market? Well well!

3. The same book by Nikolai Sokolov describes the same basement in the same Ipatiev house, where in the fireplace there are clothes from every member of the imperial family and hair from every head. Did they have their hair cut and changed (undressed??) before being shot? Not at all - they were taken out on the same train on that very “night of the execution,” but they cut their hair and changed their clothes so that no one would recognize them there.

Tom Magold and Anthony Summers intuitively understood that the answer to this intriguing detective story must be sought in Treaty of the Brest-Litovsk Peace. And they began to look for the original text. And what?? With all the removal of secrets after 60 years of such an official document nowhere! It is not in the declassified archives of London or Berlin. They searched everywhere - and found only quotes everywhere, but could not find them anywhere full text! And they came to the conclusion that the Kaiser demanded from Lenin that the women be extradited. The Tsar's wife was a relative of the Kaiser, his daughters were German citizens and had no right to the throne, and besides, the Kaiser at that moment could crush Lenin like a bug! And here are Lenin’s words that “The world is humiliating and obscene, but it must be signed”, and the July coup attempt by the Social Revolutionaries with those who joined them in Bolshoi Theater Dzerzhinsky takes on a completely different look.

Officially we were taught that Trotsky signed the treaty only on the second attempt and only after the start of the offensive German army, when it became clear to everyone that the Republic of Soviets could not resist. If there is simply no army, what is “humiliating and obscene” here? Nothing. But if it is necessary to hand over all the women of the royal family, and even to the Germans, and even during the First World War, then ideologically everything is in its place, and the words are read correctly. Which Lenin did, and the entire ladies’ section was handed over to the Germans in Kyiv. And immediately the murder of the German ambassador Mirbach in Moscow and the German consul in Kyiv begins to make sense.

“Dossier on the Tsar” is a fascinating investigation into one cunningly intricate intrigue of world history. The book was published in 1979, so the words of sister Paskalina in 1983 about Olga’s grave could not have been included in it. And if there were no new facts, there would be no point in simply retelling someone else’s book here...