According to some information, the Romanovs are not of Russian blood at all, but came from Prussia; according to the historian Veselovsky, they are still Novgorodians. The first Romanov appeared as a result of the interweaving of childbirth Koshkins-Zakharyins-Yurievs-Shuiskys-Ruriks in the guise of Mikhail Fedorovich, elected Tsar of the House of Romanov. The Romanovs, in different interpretations of their surnames and names, ruled until 1917.

The Romanov family: a story of life and death - summary

The era of the Romanovs is a 304-year usurpation of power in the vastness of Russia by one family of boyars. According to the social classification of feudal society of the 10th – 17th centuries, boyars were called large landowners in Moscow Rus'. IN 10th – 17th for centuries it was the highest layer of the ruling class. According to Danube-Bulgarian origin, “boyar” is translated as “nobleman”. Their history is a time of unrest and irreconcilable struggle with the kings for complete power.

Exactly 405 years ago, a dynasty of kings of this name appeared. 297 years ago, Peter the Great took the title of All-Russian Emperor. In order not to degenerate by blood, there was leapfrog with its mixing along the male and female lines. After Catherine the First and Paul the Second, the branch of Mikhail Romanov sank into oblivion. But new branches arose, with an admixture of other bloods. The surname Romanov was also borne by Fyodor Nikitich, Russian Patriarch Filaret.

In 1913, the three-hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated magnificently and solemnly.

The highest officials of Russia, invited from European countries, did not even suspect that a fire was already heating up under the house, which would burn out the last emperor and his family in just four years.

At the time in question, members of the imperial families did not have surnames. They were called crown princes, grand dukes, and princesses. After the Great October Socialist Revolution, which critics of Russia call a terrible coup for the country, its Provisional Government decreed that all members of this house should be called Romanovs.

More details on the main reigning persons of the Russian state

16-year-old first king. The appointment and election of essentially inexperienced in politics or even young children and grandchildren during the transition of power is not new for Russia. This was often practiced so that the curators of child rulers would solve their own problems before they came of age. In this case, Mikhail the First razed the “time of troubles” to the ground, brought peace and brought the almost collapsed country together. Of his ten family offspring also 16 years old Tsarevich Alexei (1629 - 1675) replaced Michael in the royal post.

The first attempt on the life of the Romanovs by relatives. Tsar Feodor the Third dies at the age of twenty. The tsar, who was in poor health (he could barely endure the coronation), meanwhile, turned out to be strong in politics, reforms, organization of the army and civil service.

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He forbade foreign tutors, who poured from Germany and France to Russia, from working without supervision. Historians of Russia suspect that the tsar's death was prepared by close relatives, most likely his sister Sophia. This is what will be discussed below.

Two kings on the throne. Again about the childhood of the Russian tsars.

After Fyodor, Ivan the Fifth was supposed to take the throne - a ruler, as they wrote, without a king in his head. Therefore, two relatives shared the throne on the same throne - Ivan and his 10-year-old brother Peter. But all state affairs were run by the already named Sophia. Peter the Great removed her from business when he learned that she had prepared a state conspiracy against his brother. He sent the intriguer to the monastery to atone for her sins.

Tsar Peter the Great becomes monarch. The one about whom they said that he cut a window to Europe for Russia. Autocrat, military strategist who finally defeated the Swedes in wars of twenty years. Titled Emperor of All Russia. Monarchy replaced reign.

Female line of monarchs. Peter, already nicknamed the Great, passed away without officially leaving an heir. Therefore, power was transferred to Peter’s second wife, Catherine the First, a German by birth. Rules for only two years - until 1727.

The female line was continued by Anna the First (Peter's niece). During her decade, her lover Ernst Biron actually reigned on the throne.

The third empress in this line was Elizaveta Petrovna from the family of Peter and Catherine. At first she was not crowned, because she was an illegitimate child. But this matured child carried out the first royal, fortunately, bloodless coup d’etat, as a result of which she sat on the All-Russian throne. By eliminating the regent Anna Leopoldovna. It is to her that her contemporaries should be grateful, because she returned St. Petersburg to its beauty and importance as a capital.

About the end of the female line. Catherine the Second the Great, arrived in Russia as Sophia Augusta Frederick. Overthrew the wife of Peter the Third. Rules for more than three decades. Having become Romanov's record holder, a despot, she strengthened the power of the capital, expanding the country territorially. Continued to improve the architectural design of the northern capital. The economy has strengthened. Patron of arts, loving woman.

A new, bloody conspiracy. Heir Paul was killed after refusing to abdicate the throne.

Alexander the First took over the government of the country on time. Napoleon marched against Russia with the strongest army in Europe. The Russian one was much weaker and drained of blood in the battles. Napoleon is just a stone's throw away from Moscow. We know from history what happened next. The Emperor of Russia came to an agreement with Prussia, and Napoleon was defeated. The combined troops entered Paris.

Attempts on the successor. They wanted to destroy Alexander II seven times: the liberal did not suit the opposition, which was already maturing then. They blew it up in the Winter Palace of the Emperors in St. Petersburg, they shot it in the Summer Garden, even at the World Exhibition in Paris. In one year there were three assassination attempts. Alexander II survived.

The sixth and seventh attempts took place almost simultaneously. One terrorist missed, and the Narodnaya Volya member Grinevitsky finished the job with a bomb.

Romanov is the last on the throne. Nicholas II was crowned for the first time with his wife, who had previously had five female names. This happened in 1896. On this occasion, they began to distribute the imperial present to those gathered on Khodynka, and thousands of people died in the stampede. The Emperor did not seem to notice the tragedy. Which further alienated the lower classes from the upper classes and prepared the way for a coup.

The Romanov family - a story of life and death (photo)

In March 1917, under pressure from the masses, Nicholas II terminated his imperial powers in favor of his brother Michael. But he was even more cowardly and abandoned the throne. And this meant only one thing: the end of the monarchy had come. At that time, there were 65 people in the Romanov dynasty. Men were shot by the Bolsheviks in a number of cities in the Middle Urals and in St. Petersburg. Forty-seven managed to escape into emigration.

The Emperor and his family were put on a train and sent into Siberian exile in August 1917. Where everyone who was disliked by the authorities was driven into the bitter cold. The small town of Tobolsk was briefly identified as the location, but it soon became clear that the Kolchakites could have captured them there and used them for their own purposes. Therefore, the train was hastily returned to the Urals, to Yekaterinburg, where the Bolsheviks ruled.

Red Terror in action

Members of the imperial family were secretly placed in the basement of a house. The shooting took place there. The emperor, his family members, and assistants were killed. The execution was given a legal basis in the form of a resolution of the Bolshevik regional council of workers', peasants' and soldiers' deputies.

In fact, without a court decision, and it was an illegal action.

A number of historians believe that the Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks received sanction from Moscow, most likely from the weak-willed All-Russian elder Sverdlov, and maybe personally from Lenin. According to testimony, the residents of Yekaterinburg rejected the court hearing because of the possible advance of Admiral Kolchak’s troops to the Urals. And this is legally no longer repression in retaliation against tsarism, but murder.

The representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Solovyov, who investigated (1993) the circumstances of the execution of the royal family, argued that neither Sverdlov nor Lenin had anything to do with the execution. Even a fool would not leave such traces, especially the country's top leaders.

Nicholas II and his family

The execution of Nicholas II and members of his family is one of the many crimes of the terrible twentieth century. Russian Emperor Nicholas II shared the fate of other autocrats - Charles I of England, Louis XVI of France. But both were executed by court order, and their relatives were not touched. The Bolsheviks destroyed Nicholas along with his wife and children, even his faithful servants paid with their lives. What caused such bestial cruelty, who initiated it, historians are still guessing

The man who was unlucky

The ruler should be not so much wise, fair, merciful, but lucky. Because it is impossible to take everything into account and many important decisions are made by guessing. And it’s hit or miss, fifty-fifty. Nicholas II on the throne was no worse and no better than his predecessors, but in matters of fateful importance for Russia, when choosing one or another path of its development, he was wrong, he simply did not guess. Not out of malice, not out of stupidity, or out of unprofessionalism, but solely according to the law of “heads and tails”

“This means dooming hundreds of thousands of Russian people to death,” the Emperor hesitated. “I sat opposite him, carefully watching the expression of his pale face, on which I could read the terrible internal struggle that was taking place in him at these moments. Finally, the sovereign, as if pronouncing the words with difficulty, said to me: “You are right. We have no choice but to wait for an attack. Give the Chief of the General Staff my order to mobilize" (Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov about the beginning of the First World War)

Could the king have chosen a different solution? Could. Russia was not ready for war. And, in the end, the war began with a local conflict between Austria and Serbia. The first declared war on the second on July 28. There was no need for Russia to intervene dramatically, but on July 29 Russia began partial mobilization in four western districts. On July 30, Germany presented Russia with an ultimatum demanding that all military preparations be stopped. Minister Sazonov convinced Nicholas II to continue. On July 30 at 5 p.m., Russia began general mobilization. At midnight from July 31 to August 1, the German ambassador informed Sazonov that if Russia did not demobilize at 12 noon on August 1, Germany would also announce mobilization. Sazonov asked if this meant war. No, the ambassador replied, but we are very close to her. Russia did not stop the mobilization. Germany began mobilization on August 1.

On August 1, in the evening, the German ambassador again came to Sazonov. He asked whether the Russian government intended to give a favorable response to yesterday's note about the cessation of mobilization. Sazonov answered negatively. Count Pourtales showed signs of increasing agitation. He took a folded paper out of his pocket and repeated his question again. Sazonov again refused. Pourtales asked the same question for the third time. “I cannot give you any other answer,” Sazonov repeated again. “In that case,” said Pourtales, choking with excitement, “I must give you this note.” With these words, he handed the paper to Sazonov. It was a note declaring war. The Russian-German war began (History of diplomacy, volume 2)

Brief biography of Nicholas II

• 1868, May 6 - in Tsarskoe Selo
• 1878, November 22 - Nikolai's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, was born
• 1881, March 1 - death of Emperor Alexander II
• 1881, March 2 - Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich was declared heir to the throne with the title "Tsarevich"
• 1894, October 20 - death of Emperor Alexander III, accession to the throne of Nicholas II
• 1895, January 17 - Nicholas II delivers a speech in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace. Statement on Policy Continuity
• 1896, May 14 - coronation in Moscow.
• 1896, May 18 - Khodynka disaster. More than 1,300 people died in the stampede on Khodynka Field during the coronation festival.

The coronation festivities continued in the evening at the Kremlin Palace, and then with a ball at a reception with the French ambassador. Many expected that if the ball was not cancelled, then at least it would take place without the sovereign. According to Sergei Alexandrovich, although Nicholas II was advised not to come to the ball, the tsar said that although the Khodynka disaster was the greatest misfortune, it should not overshadow the coronation holiday. According to another version, his entourage persuaded the tsar to attend a ball at the French embassy due to foreign policy considerations(Wikipedia).

• 1898, August - Nicholas II’s proposal to convene a conference and discuss at it the possibilities of “putting a limit to the growth of armaments” and “protecting” world peace
• 1898, March 15 - Russian occupation of the Liaodong Peninsula.
• 1899, February 3 - Nicholas II signed the Manifesto on Finland and published the “Basic provisions on the preparation, consideration and promulgation of laws issued for the empire with the inclusion of the Grand Duchy of Finland.”
• 1899, May 18 - the start of the “peace” conference in The Hague, initiated by Nicholas II. The conference discussed issues of arms limitation and ensuring lasting peace; Representatives from 26 countries took part in its work
• 1900, June 12 - decree canceling exile to Siberia for settlement
• 1900, July - August - participation of Russian troops in the suppression of the “Boxer Rebellion” in China. Russian occupation of all of Manchuria - from the border of the empire to the Liaodong Peninsula
• 1904, January 27 - beginning
• 1905, January 9 - Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg. Start

Diary of Nicholas II

— January 6th. Thursday.
Until 9 o'clock let's go to the city. The day was gray and quiet at 8° below zero. We changed clothes at our place in the Winter Palace. AT 10 O'CLOCK? went into the halls to greet the troops. Until 11 o'clock we set off for the church. The service lasted an hour and a half. We went out to see Jordan wearing a coat. During the salute, one of the guns of my 1st cavalry battery fired grapeshot from Vasiliev [sky] island. and it doused the area closest to the Jordan and part of the palace. One policeman was wounded. Several bullets were found on the platform; the banner of the Marine Corps was pierced.
After breakfast, ambassadors and envoys were received in the Golden Drawing Room. At 4 o'clock we left for Tsarskoye. I took a walk. I was studying. We had dinner together and went to bed early.
— January 7th. Friday.
The weather was calm, sunny with wonderful frost on the trees. In the morning I had a meeting with D. Alexei and some ministers on the matter of the Argentine and Chilean courts (1). He had breakfast with us. Received nine people.
The two of you went to venerate the icon of the Mother of God. I read a lot. The two of us spent the evening together.
— January 8th. Saturday.
Clear frosty day. There was a lot of work and reports. Fredericks had breakfast. I walked for a long time. Since yesterday, all plants and factories have been on strike in St. Petersburg. Troops were called from the surrounding area to reinforce the garrison. The workers have been calm so far. Their number is determined at 120,000 hours. At the head of the workers' union is a priest - the socialist Gapon. Mirsky arrived in the evening to report on the measures taken.
— January 9th. Sunday.
Hard day! Serious riots occurred in St. Petersburg as a result of the workers’ desire to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places in the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and difficult! Mom came to us from the city right in time for mass. We had breakfast with everyone. I was walking with Misha. Mom stayed with us for the night.
— January 10th. Monday.
There were no major incidents in the city today. There were reports. Uncle Alexey was having breakfast. Received a delegation of Ural Cossacks who arrived with caviar. I was walking. We drank tea at Mama's. To unite actions to stop the unrest in St. Petersburg, he decided to appoint General-M. Trepov as governor-general of the capital and province. In the evening I had a meeting on this matter with him, Mirsky and Hesse. Dabich (d.) dined.
— January 11th. Tuesday.
During the day there were no major disturbances in the city. Had the usual reports. After breakfast, Rear Adm. received. Nebogatov, appointed commander of the additional detachment of the Pacific Ocean squadron. I was walking. It was not a cold, gray day. I worked a lot. Everyone spent the evening reading aloud.

• 1905, January 11 - Nicholas II signed a decree establishing the St. Petersburg Governor-General. Petersburg and the province were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Governor General; all civilian institutions were subordinate to him and given the right to independently call up troops. On the same day, former Moscow Chief of Police D. F. Trepov was appointed to the post of Governor General
• 1905, January 19 - Nicholas II received a deputation of workers from St. Petersburg in Tsarskoe Selo. The tsar allocated 50 thousand rubles from his own funds to help family members of those killed and wounded on January 9
• 1905, April 17 - signing of the Manifesto “On the approval of the principles of religious tolerance”
• 1905, August 23 - conclusion of the Portsmouth Peace, which ended the Russo-Japanese War
• 1905, October 17 - signing of the Manifesto on political freedoms, establishment of the State Duma
• 1914, August 1 - beginning of World War I
• 1915, August 23 - Nicholas II assumed the duties of Supreme Commander-in-Chief
• 1916, November 26 and 30 - The State Council and the Congress of the United Nobility joined the demand of State Duma deputies to eliminate the influence of “dark irresponsible forces” and create a government ready to rely on a majority in both chambers of the State Duma
• 1916, December 17 - assassination of Rasputin
• 1917, end of February - Nicholas II decided on Wednesday to go to Headquarters, located in Mogilev

The palace commandant, General Voeikov, asked why the emperor made such a decision when the front was relatively calm, while there was little calm in the capital and his presence in Petrograd would be very important. The Emperor replied that the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev, was waiting for him at Headquarters and wanted to discuss some issues.... Meanwhile, Chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko asked the Emperor for an audience: “In that terrible hour that the homeland is going through, I believe “It is my most loyal duty as Chairman of the State Duma to report to you in full about the danger threatening the Russian state.” The Emperor accepted it, but rejected the advice not to dissolve the Duma and form a “Ministry of Trust” that would enjoy the support of the entire society. Rodzianko urged the emperor in vain: “The hour that decides the fate of you and your homeland has come. Tomorrow may be too late” (L. Mlechin “Krupskaya”)

• 1917, February 22 - the imperial train departed from Tsarskoye Selo to Headquarters
• 1917, February 23 - Started
• 1917, February 28 - the adoption by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma of the final decision on the need for the abdication of the Tsar in favor of the heir to the throne under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich; departure of Nicholas II from Headquarters to Petrograd.
• 1917, March 1 - arrival of the royal train in Pskov.
• 1917, March 2 - signing of the Manifesto abdicating the throne for himself and for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
• 1917, March 3 - refusal of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich to accept the throne

Family of Nicholas II. Briefly

• 1889, January - first meeting at a court ball in St. Petersburg with his future wife, Princess Alice of Hesse
• 1894, April 8 - engagement of Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alice of Hesse in Coburg (Germany)
• 1894, October 21 - anointing of the bride of Nicholas II and naming her “Blessed Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna”
• 1894, November 14 - wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

In front of me stood a tall, slender lady of about 50 wearing a simple gray sister's suit and a white headscarf. The Empress greeted me kindly and asked me where I was wounded, in what case and on what front. A little worried, I answered all Her questions without taking my eyes off Her face. Almost classically correct, this face in its youth was undoubtedly beautiful, very beautiful, but this beauty, obviously, was cold and impassive. And now, aged with time and with small wrinkles around the eyes and corners of the lips, this face was very interesting, but too stern and too thoughtful. That’s what I thought: what a correct, intelligent, stern and energetic face (memories of the Empress, ensign of the machine gun team of the 10th Kuban Plastun battalion S.P. Pavlov. Being wounded in January 1916, he ended up in Her Majesty’s Own infirmary in Tsarskoe Selo)

• 1895, November 3 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna
• 1897, May 29 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna
• 1899, June 14 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
• 1901, June 5 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna
• 1904, July 30 - birth of a son, heir to the throne, Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich

Diary of Nicholas II: “An unforgettable great day for us, on which the mercy of God so clearly visited us,” Nicholas II wrote in his diary. “Alix gave birth to a son, who was named Alexei during prayer... There are no words to be able to thank God enough for the consolation He has sent in this time of difficult trials!”
German Kaiser Wilhelm II telegraphed Nicholas II: “Dear Nicky, how nice that you offered me to be your boy’s godfather! Good is what is waited for a long time, says the German proverb, so be it with this dear little one! May he grow up to be a brave soldier, a wise and strong statesman, may God's blessing always protect his body and soul. May he be the same ray of sunshine for both of you all his life as he is now, during trials!”

• 1904, August - on the fortieth day after birth, Alexei was diagnosed with hemophilia. Palace Commandant General Voeikov: “For the royal parents, life has lost its meaning. We were afraid to smile in their presence. We behaved in the palace as if in a house in which someone had died."
• 1905, November 1 - Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna met Grigory Rasputin. Rasputin somehow had a positive effect on the Tsarevich’s well-being, which is why Nicholas II and the Empress favored him

Execution of the royal family. Briefly

• 1917, March 3–8 - stay of Nicholas II at Headquarters (Mogilev)
• 1917, March 6 - decision of the Provisional Government to arrest Nicholas II
• 1917, March 9 - after wandering around Russia, Nicholas II returned to Tsarskoe Selo
• 1917, March 9-July 31 - Nicholas II and his family live under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo
• 1917, July 16-18 - July Days - powerful spontaneous popular anti-government protests in Petrograd
• 1917, August 1 - Nicholas II and his family went into exile in Tobolsk, where the Provisional Government sent him after the July Days
• 1917, December 19 - formed after. The Soldiers' Committee of Tobolsk forbade Nicholas II to attend church
• 1917, December - The Soldiers' Committee decided to remove the Tsar's shoulder straps, which was perceived by him as humiliation
• 1918, February 13 - Commissar Karelin decided to pay from the treasury only soldiers' rations, heating and lighting, and everything else - at the expense of prisoners, and the use of personal capital was limited to 600 rubles per month
• 1918, February 19 - an ice slide built in the garden for the royal children to ride on was destroyed at night with pickaxes. The pretext for this was that from the slide it was possible to “look over the fence”
• 1918, March 7 - the ban on visiting church was lifted
• 1918, April 26 - Nicholas II and his family set off from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg

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Important Topics

What happened to those who shot the royal family?

Until now, historians cannot say for sure who exactly gave the order to execute the royal family. According to one version, this decision was made by Sverdlov and Lenin. According to another, they wanted to start by at least bringing Nicholas II to Moscow to judge in an official setting. Another version says that the party leaders did not want to kill the Romanovs at all - the Ural Bolsheviks made the decision to execute them independently, without consulting their superiors.

During the Civil War, confusion reigned, and local branches of the party had broad independence, explains Alexander Ladygin, a teacher of Russian history at IGNI UrFU. - Local Bolsheviks advocated world revolution and were very critical of Lenin. In addition, during this period there was an active offensive of the White Czech corps on Yekaterinburg, and the Ural Bolsheviks believed that it was unacceptable to leave such an important propaganda figure as the former tsar to the enemy.

It is also not entirely known exactly how many people took part in the execution. Some “contemporaries” claimed that 12 people with revolvers were selected. Others that there were much fewer of them.

The identities of only five participants in the murder are known for certain. These are the commandant of the Special Purpose House Yakov Yurovsky, his assistant Grigory Nikulin, military commissar Pyotr Ermakov, head of the house security Pavel Medvedev and member of the Cheka Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin.

Yurovsky fired the first shot. This served as a signal for the rest of the security officers, says Nikolai Neuimin, head of the department of history of the Romanov dynasty at the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. - Everyone shot at Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna. Then Yurovsky gave the command to cease fire, since one of the Bolsheviks almost had his finger torn off from the indiscriminate shooting. All the Grand Duchesses were still alive at that time. They began to finish them off. Alexei was one of the last to be killed, as he was unconscious. When the Bolsheviks began to carry out the bodies, Anastasia suddenly came to life and had to be bayoneted to death.

Many participants in the murder of the royal family retained written memories of that night, which, by the way, do not coincide in all details. So, for example, Pyotr Ermakov stated that it was he who led the execution. Although other sources claim that he was only an ordinary performer. Probably, in this way the participants in the murder wanted to curry favor with the new leadership of the country. Although this did not help everyone.

The grave of Peter Ermakov is located almost in the very center of Yekaterinburg - at the Ivanovo cemetery. A tombstone with a large five-pointed star stands literally three steps from the grave of the Ural storyteller Pavel Petrovich Bazhov. After the end of the Civil War, Ermakov worked as a law enforcement officer, first in Omsk, then in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. And in 1927, he achieved a promotion to the head of one of the Ural prisons. Many times Ermakov met with groups of workers to talk about how the royal family was killed. He was encouraged more than once. In 1930, the party bureau awarded him a Browning, and a year later Ermakov was given the title of honorary drummer and rewarded with a certificate for completing the five-year plan in three years. However, not everyone treated him favorably. According to rumors, when Marshal Zhukov headed the Ural Military District, Pyotr Ermakov met with him at one of the ceremonial meetings. As a sign of greeting, he extended his hand to Georgy Konstantinovich, but he refused to shake it, declaring: “I don’t shake hands with executioners!”

When Marshal Zhukov headed the Ural Military District, he refused to shake hands with Pyotr Ermakov, saying: “I don’t shake hands with the executioners!” Photo: archive of the Sverdlovsk region

Ermakov lived quietly to the age of 68. And in the 1960s, one of the streets of Sverdlovsk was renamed in his honor. True, after the collapse of the USSR the name was changed again.

Pyotr Ermakov was only a performer. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that he escaped repression. Ermakov never held major leadership positions. His highest appointment is as an inspector of places of detention. No one had any questions for him,” says Alexander Ladygin. “But over the past two years, the monument to Pyotr Ermakov has been vandalized three times. A year ago, during the Royal Days, we cleaned it. But today he is in the paint again.

After the execution of the royal family, Yakov Yurovsky managed to work in the Moscow City Council, in the Cheka of the Vyatka province and as chairman of the provincial Cheka in Yekaterinburg. However, in 1920 he began to have stomach problems and moved to Moscow for treatment. During the capital stage of his life, Yurovsky changed more than one place of work. At first he was the manager of the organizational training department, then he worked in the gold department at the People's Commissariat of Finance, from where he later moved to the position of deputy director of the Bogatyr plant, which produced galoshes. Until the 1930s, Yurovsky changed several more leadership positions and even managed to work as director of the State Polytechnic Museum. And in 1933 he retired and died five years later in the Kremlin hospital from a perforated stomach ulcer.

Yurovsky’s ashes were buried in the church of the Donskoy Monastery of Seraphim of Sarov in Moscow, notes Nikolai Neuymin. - In the early 20s, the first crematorium in the USSR opened there, where they even published a magazine promoting the cremation of Soviet citizens as an alternative to pre-revolutionary burials. And there on one of the shelves there were urns with the ashes of Yurovsky and his wife.

After the Civil War, the assistant commandant of the Ipatiev house, Grigory Nikulin, worked for two years as the head of the criminal investigation department in Moscow, and then got a job at the Moscow water supply station, also in a leadership position. He lived to be 71 years old.

It is interesting that Grigory Nikulin was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. His grave is located next to the grave of Boris Yeltsin, they say in the regional museum of local lore. - And 30 meters from him, next to the grave of a friend of the poet Mayakovsky, lies another regicide - Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin.

Grigory Nikulin worked for two years as the head of the criminal investigation department in Moscow. The latter, by the way, lived for another 46 years after the execution of the royal family. In 1938, he took a leadership position in the NKVD of the USSR and rose to the rank of colonel. He was buried with military honors on January 15, 1964. In his will, Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin asked his son to give Khrushchev the Browning gun from which the royal family was killed, and to give Fidel Castro the Colt that the regicide used in 1919.

After the execution of the royal family, Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin lived for another 46 years. Perhaps the only one of the five famous murderers who was unlucky during his lifetime is the head of security at Ipatiev’s house, Pavel Medvedev. Soon after the bloody massacre, he was captured by the whites. Having learned about his role in the execution of the Romanovs, employees of the White Guard criminal investigation department put him in Yekaterinburg prison, where he died of typhus on March 12, 1919.

Who needed the death of the royal family?

Who and why needed to shoot the tsar who had abdicated power and his relatives and servants? (Versions)

First version (New War)

A number of historians say that neither Lenin nor Sverdlov bear responsibility for the murder of the Romanovs. Allegedly, the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies in the winter, spring and summer of 1918 often made independent decisions that fundamentally contradicted the instructions of the center. They say that the Urals, in whose Council there were many left Socialist Revolutionaries, were determined to continue the war with Germany.

We may recall in direct connection with this that on July 6, 1918, the German ambassador Count Wilhelm von Mirbach was killed in Moscow. This murder is a provocation of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, which since October 1917 was part of the government coalition with the Bolsheviks and set itself the goal of violating the shameful Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with the Germans. And the execution of the Romanovs, whose safety Kaiser Wilhelm demanded, finally buried the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Having learned that the Romanovs were shot, Lenin and Sverdlov officially approved what happened, and none of the organizers or participants in the massacre were punished. A formal request about a possible execution, which was sent by the Urals to the Kremlin (such a telegram dated July 16, 1918 actually exists), supposedly did not even have time to reach Lenin before the planned action took place. Be that as it may, no response telegram arrived, they did not wait for it, and the massacre was carried out without the direct sanction of the government. Based on the results of a long investigation, the senior investigator for particularly important cases, Vladimir Solovyov, confirmed this version in his interview in 2009-2010. Moreover, Soloviev argued that Lenin was generally against the execution of the Romanovs.

So, one option: the execution of the royal family was carried out in the interests of the left Socialist Revolutionaries for the sake of continuing the war with the Germans.

Second version (Tsar, as a victim to secret forces?)

According to the second version, the murder of the Romanovs was ritual, sanctioned by certain “secret societies.” This is confirmed by Kabbalistic signs found on the wall in the room in which the execution took place. Although to this day no one has been able to identify the ink inscriptions on the windowsill as something that has a clearly interpretable meaning, some experts are inclined to believe that the following message is encrypted in them: “Here, on the orders of secret forces, the king was sacrificed for the destruction of the state . All nations are informed of this.”

In addition, on the southern wall of the room where the execution took place, a couplet written in German and distorted from a poem by Heinrich Heine about the murdered Babylonian king Belshazzar was found. However, who exactly and when could have made these inscriptions remains unknown today, and the “decipherment” of the supposedly Kabbalistic symbols is refuted by many historians. It is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about them, although great efforts were made to this end, in particular because the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) was particularly interested in the version of the ritual nature of the murder. However, the investigative authorities gave a negative response to the request of the Moscow Patriarchate: “Wasn’t the murder of the Romanovs ritual?” Although serious work was probably not carried out to establish the truth. In Tsarist Russia there were many “secret societies”: from occultists to freemasons.

Third version (American trace)

Another interesting idea is that this massacre was carried out on the direct orders of the United States. Not the American government, of course, but the American billionaire Jacob Schiff, with whom, according to some information, Yakov Yurovsky, a member of the board of the Ural Regional Cheka, who headed the security of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, was connected. Yurovsky lived in America for a long time and returned to Russia just before the revolution.

Jacob, or Jacob Schiff, was one of the richest men of the time, the head of the giant banking house Kuhn, Loeb and Company, and hated the tsarist government and Nikolai Romanov personally. The American was not allowed to expand his business in Russia and was very sensitive about depriving part of the Jewish population of civil rights.

Schiff enjoyed his authority and influence in the American banking and financial sector, tried to block Russia’s access to foreign loans in America, took part in financing the Japanese government during the Russo-Japanese War, and also generously financed supporters of the Bolshevik revolution (we are talking about an amount of 20-24 billion dollars in modern terms). It was thanks to Jacob Schiff's subsidies that the Bolsheviks were able to carry out the revolution and achieve victory. He who pays calls the tune. Therefore, Jacob Schiff had the opportunity to “order” the murder of the royal family from the Bolsheviks. In addition, the chief executioner Yurovsky, by a strange coincidence, considered America his second homeland.

But the Bolsheviks who came to power after the execution of the Romanovs unexpectedly refused to cooperate with Schiff. Maybe because he arranged the execution of the royal family over their heads?

Fourth version (New Herostratus)

It cannot be ruled out that the execution, carried out on the direct orders of Yakov Yurovsky, was primarily necessary for him personally. The morbidly ambitious Yurovsky, with all his desire, could not have found a better way to “inherit” in history than to personally shoot at the heart of the last Russian Tsar. And it is no coincidence that he subsequently emphasized many times his special role in the execution: “I fired the first shot and killed Nikolai on the spot... I shot at him, he fell down, shooting immediately began... I killed Nikolai on the spot with the Colt, the rest of the cartridges were the same loaded Colt clips, as well as a loaded Mauser, were used to finish off Nikolai’s daughters... Alexey remained sitting as if petrified, and I shot him...” The executioner Yurovsky so clearly and openly enjoyed remembering the execution that it becomes clear: for him the regicide became the most ambitious achievement in life .

Shot along with the Romanovs: Top: life physician E. Botkin, life cook I. Kharitonov: Bottom: room girl A. Demidov, valet Colonel A. Trupp

Fifth version (Point of no return)

Assessing the historical significance of the execution of the Romanovs, he wrote: “The execution of the Romanovs was needed not just to frighten, horrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up one’s own ranks, to show that complete victory or complete destruction lay ahead. This goal has been achieved... Senseless, monstrous cruelty has been committed, and the point of no return has been passed.”

Sixth version

American journalists A. Summers and T. Mangold in the 1970s studied a previously unknown part of the archives of the 1918-1919 investigation, found in the 1930s in America, and published the result of their investigation in 1976. According to them, N. Sokolov’s conclusions about the death of the entire Romanov family were made under pressure, which for some reasons was beneficial to declare all family members dead. They consider the investigations and conclusions of other White Army investigators to be more objective. According to their opinion, it is more likely that only the heir and the heir were shot in Yekaterinburg, and Alexandra Fedorovna and her daughters were transported to Perm. Nothing is known about the further fate of Alexandra Fedorovna and her daughters. A. Summers and T. Mangold are inclined to believe that in reality it was Grand Duchess Anastasia.

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 either mysterious or half-blind gaze thanks to the upper eyelids hanging heavily over his eyes.” //Karabchevsky N.P. Revolution and Russia. Berlin, 1921. T. 2. What my eyes saw. Ch. 39.

After the October Revolution, the Soviet government took the position of Nicholas II on the organization open court over the 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. The age-old problem of 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 were from the Partisan detachment of the Central Executive Committee, 20 people from the detachment of the 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 favorable conditions were provided during his transfer, he should be shot on the road. Zaslavsky had such an order (commander of the Yekaterinburg detachment sent to Tobolsk - I.K.) 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 behind him, is from the Council of People's Commissars, then he should present him where he was ordered. 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.

According to 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 the Protection of State Order and Public Peace in the Perm Province dated 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 the Eastern Front, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Muravyov, raised a rebellion, who tried to capture Simbirsk, so that, having concluded agreement with the White Czechs, together with them to move towards 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 received funds 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.

A spy group was operating 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. Grand Duchess Anastasia screamed, the maid A.S. Demidova rose to her feet, and 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 the cervical vertebrae of 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. An inspection of the FSB Directorate for Yekaterinburg and the 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 say 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. Recently it was intended to bring the former king to trial for all his crimes against the people, and only recent events prevented this from being carried out.
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.”

The historian Ioffe believes that specific people played a fatal role in the fate of the royal family: the 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 Several armed men appeared at the hotel in Perm, where Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich and his personal secretary and friend Brian Johnson lived in exile. 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 suffered from hemorrhage under the dura mater and disruption 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 confrontation between Russia and Germany was supported by British and American bankers literally just a few years after the events we are considering, taking up the financing of the Nazi 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.