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

About the reasons and main ones characters murders royal family tells Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Lavrov.

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

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

But let’s assume that you can find fault with any head of state. But what is my fault? Alexandra Fedorovna? Is that the wife? Why should the sovereign’s children be judged? The women and the teenager would have to be released from custody right there in the courtroom, admitting that the Soviet government repressed the innocent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

— There is a version that the family was killed because of the advance of the whites. They say that the White Guards could return the Romanovs to the throne.

— None of the leaders of the white movement intended to restore the monarchy in Russia. In addition, White's offensive was not lightning fast. The Bolsheviks themselves evacuated themselves perfectly and seized their property. So it was not difficult to take out the royal family.

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

— Did the royal family have a chance of salvation?

- Yes, if their English relatives had not betrayed them. In March 1917, when the family of Nicholas II was under arrest in Tsarskoe Selo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government Miliukov suggested the option of her going to the UK. Nicholas II agreed to leave. A George V, English king and at the same time cousin Nicholas II, agreed to accept the Romanov family. But within a matter of days, George V took back his royal word. Although in letters George V swore to Nicholas II of his friendship until the end of days! The British betrayed not just the Tsar of a foreign power - they betrayed their close relatives, Alexandra Feodorovna is the beloved granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. But George V, also Victoria’s grandson, obviously did not want Nicholas II to remain a living center of gravity for Russian patriotic forces. The revival of a strong Russia was not in Britain's interests. And the family of Nicholas II had no other options to save themselves.

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

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

I bring to the attention of readers a very interesting information from the book “Way of the Cross of the Holy Royal Martyrs”
(Moscow 2002)

The murder of the Royal Family was prepared in the strictest secrecy. Even many high-ranking Bolsheviks were not initiated into it.

It was carried out in Yekaterinburg on orders from Moscow, according to a long-conceived plan.

The investigation names Yankel Movshevich Sverdlov, who held the position of Chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Escort, as the main organizer of the murder. Committee of the Congress of Soviets, the all-powerful temporary ruler of Russia in this era.

All the threads of the crime converge on him. From him came the instructions received and carried out in Yekaterinburg. His task was to give the murder the appearance of an unauthorized act of the local Ural authorities, thereby completely removing the responsibility of the Soviet government and the real initiators of the crime.

The following persons were accomplices in the murder from among the local Bolshevik leaders: Shaya Isaakovich Goloshchekin - a personal friend of Sverdlov, who seized actual power in the Urals, the military commissar of the Ural region, the head of the Cheka and the main executioner of the Urals at that time; Yankel Izidorovich Weisbart (called himself Russian worker A.G. Beloborodov) - Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ural Regional Council; Alexander Moebius - Chief of the Revolutionary Staff - Bronstein-Trotsky's special representative; Yankel Khaimovich Yurovsky (who called himself Yakov Mikhailovich, - Commissioner of Justice of the Ural Region, member of the Cheka; Pinhus Lazarevich Weiner (who called himself Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov (his name is the modern Moscow metro station "Voikovskaya") - Commissar of Supply of the Ural Region, - Yurovsky's closest assistant and Safarov is Yurovsky's second assistant. They all carried out instructions from Moscow from Sverdlov, Apfelbaum, Lenin, Uritsky and Bronstein-Trotsky (in his memoirs, published abroad in 1931, Trotsky accused himself, cynically justifying the murder of the entire Royal Family, including including the August Children).

In the absence of Goloshchekin (he went to Moscow to Sverdlov for instructions), preparations for the murder of the Royal Family began to take a concrete form: unnecessary witnesses were removed - the internal guards, because she was almost completely disposed towards the Royal Family and was unreliable for the executioners, namely on July 3, 1918. - Avdeev and his assistant Moshkin (who was even arrested) were suddenly expelled. Instead of Avdeev, the commandant of the “House of Special Purpose”, Yurovsky became his assistant, Nikulin (known for his atrocities in Kamyshin, working in the Cheka) was appointed his assistant.

All security was replaced by selected security officers seconded by the local emergency service. From now on and for two last weeks, when the Royal Prisoners had to live under the same roof with their future executioners, Their Life became pure torture...

On Sunday, July 1/14, three days before the murder, at the request of the Sovereign, Yurovsky allowed the invitation of Archpriest Father Ioann Storozhev and Deacon Bumirov, who had previously served a mass service for the Royal Family on May 20/June 2. They noticed a change in the state of mind of Their Majesties and Most August Children. According to St. John, they were not “depressed in spirit, but still gave the impression of being tired.” On this day, for the first time, none of the Members of the Royal Family sang during the Divine Service. They prayed in silence, as if anticipating that this was Their last church prayer, and as if it was revealed to them that this prayer would be extraordinary. And indeed, a significant event took place here, the deep and mysterious meaning of which became clear only when it became a thing of the past. The deacon began to sing “Rest with the Saints,” although according to the rite of the liturgy, this prayer is supposed to be read, recalls Fr. John: “...I also began to sing, somewhat embarrassed by such a deviation from the rules, but as soon as we started singing, I heard that the Members of the Romanov Family standing behind me knelt down...” So the Royal Prisoners, without suspecting it themselves, prepared for death by accepting funeral instructions...

Meanwhile, Goloshchekin brought an order from Moscow from Sverdlov to execute the Royal Family.

Yurovsky and his team of executioners quickly prepared everything for the execution. On the morning of Tuesday, July 3/16, 1918. he removed the cook’s apprentice, little Leonid Sednev, I.D.’s nephew, from the Ipatiev house. Sednev (children's footman).

But even in these dying days, the Royal Family did not lose courage. On Monday, July 2/15, four women were sent to Ipatiev's house to wash the floors. One later testified to the investigator: “I personally washed the floors in almost all the rooms reserved for the Royal Family... The princesses helped us clean and move the beds in Their bedroom and talked cheerfully among themselves...”

At 7 o’clock in the evening, Yurovsky ordered the revolvers to be taken away from the Russian outer guards, then he distributed the same revolvers to the participants in the execution, Pavel Medvedev helped him.

On this last day of the life of the Prisoners, the Sovereign, the Heir Tsarevich and all the Grand Duchesses went for their usual walk in the garden and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon during the changing of the guards they returned to the house. They didn't come out anymore. The evening routine was not disrupted by anything...

Suspecting nothing, the Royal Family went to bed. Shortly after midnight, Yurovsky entered Their rooms, woke everyone up, and, under the pretext of the danger threatening the city from the approaching White troops, announced that he had orders to take the Prisoners to a safe place. After some time, when everyone had dressed, washed and prepared to leave, Yurovsky, accompanied by Nikulin and Medvedev, led the Royal Family to the lower floor to the outer door facing Voznesensky Lane.

Yurovsky and Nikulin walked ahead, holding a lamp in his hand to illuminate the dark narrow staircase. The Emperor followed them. He carried the Heir, Alexei Nikolaevich, in his arms. The Heir's leg was bandaged with a thick bandage, and with every step He moaned quietly. Following the Emperor were the Empress and the Grand Duchesses. Some of them had a pillow with them, and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna carried her beloved dog Jimmy in her arms. Next came the physician E.S. Botkin, the room girl A.S. Demidova, the footman A.E. Trupp and the cook I.M. Kharitonov. Medvedev brought up the rear of the procession. Having gone downstairs and passing through the entire lower floor to the corner room - it was the front room with the exit door to the street - Yurovsky turned left into the adjacent middle room, just under the bedroom of the Grand Duchesses, and announced that they would have to wait until the cars were delivered. It was an empty semi-basement room 5 1/3 long and 4 1/2 m wide.

Since the Tsarevich could not stand and the Empress was unwell, at the Emperor’s request three chairs were brought. The Emperor sat down in the middle of the room, seating the Heir next to Him and hugging Him right hand. Behind the Heir and slightly to the side of Him stood Doctor Botkin. The Empress sat down left hand from the Emperor, closer to the window and a step behind. A pillow was placed on Her chair and on the Heir's chair. On the same side, even closer to the wall with the window, in the back of the room, stood Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and a little further, in the corner near the outer wall, Anna Demidova. Behind the Empress’s chair was one of the senior V. Princesses, probably Tatyana Nikolaevna. On Her right hand, leaning against the back wall, stood V. Princesses Olga Nikolaevna and Maria Nikolaevna; Next to them, a little ahead, is A. Troupe, holding a blanket for the Heir, and in the corner far left of the door is cook Kharitonov. The first half of the room from the entrance remained free. Everyone was calm. They are apparently accustomed to such night alarms and movements. Moreover, Yurovsky’s explanations seemed plausible, and some “forced” delay did not arouse any suspicion.

altYurovsky went out to make the last orders. By this time, all 11 executioners who shot the Royal Family and Her faithful servants that night had gathered in one of the neighboring rooms. Here are their names: Yankel Haimovich Yurovsky, Nikulin, Stepan Vaganov, Pavel Spiridonovich Medvedev, Laons Gorvat, Anselm Fischer, Isidor Edelstein, Emil Fecte, Imre Nad, Victor Grinfeld and Andreas Vergazi - mercenaries - Magyars.

Each had a seven-shot revolver. Yurovsky, in addition, had a Mauser, and two of them had rifles with fixed bayonets. Each killer chose his victim in advance: Gorvat chose Botkin. But at the same time, Yurovsky strictly forbade everyone else to shoot at the Sovereign Emperor and the Tsarevich: he wanted, or rather, he was ordered, to kill the Russian Orthodox Tsar and His Heir with his own hand.

Outside the window, the noise of the engine of a four-ton Fiat truck, prepared for transporting bodies, was heard. Shooting to the sound of a running truck engine, in order to muffle the shots, was a favorite technique of the security officers. This method was applied here as well.

It was 1 o'clock. 15m. Nights according to solar time, or 3 hours. 15m. according to summer time (translated by the Bolsheviks two hours ahead). Yurovsky returned to the room, along with the entire team of executioners. Nikulin moved closer to the window, opposite the Empress. Gorvat positioned himself facing Doctor Botkin. The others split up on either side of the door. Medvedev took a position on the threshold.

Approaching the Emperor, Yurovsky said a few words, announcing the upcoming execution. This was so unexpected that the Emperor, apparently, did not immediately understand the meaning of what was said. He stood up from his chair and asked in amazement: “What? What?" The Empress and one of the Grand Duchesses managed to cross themselves. At that moment, Yurovsky raised his revolver and shot several times at point-blank range, first at the Sovereign and then at the Heir.

Almost simultaneously, others began shooting. The Grand Duchesses, standing in the second row, saw their Parents fall and began to scream in horror. They were destined to outlive Them for several terrible moments. Those shot fell one after another. About 70 shots were fired in just 2-3 minutes. The wounded Princesses were finished off with bayonets. The heir moaned weakly. Yurovsky killed Him with two shots to the head. The wounded Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was finished off with bayonets and rifle butts.

Anna Demidova rushed about until she fell under the blows of bayonets. Some victims were shot and stabbed to death before everything died down.

...Through the bluish fog that filled the room from many shots, with the weak illumination of one electric light bulb, the picture of the murder presented a terrifying spectacle.

The Emperor fell forward, close to the Empress. The Heir was lying on his back nearby. The Grand Duchesses were together, as if They were holding each other's hands. Between Them lay the corpse of little Jimmy, whom Great Anastasia Nikolaevna held her close until the last moment. Dr. Botkin took a step forward before falling on his face with his right arm raised. Anna Demidova and Alexey Trupp fell near the back wall. Ivan Kharitonov lay supine at the feet of the Grand Duchesses. All those killed had several wounds, and therefore there was especially a lot of blood. Their faces and clothes were covered in blood; it stood in puddles on the floor, splashes and stains covered the walls. It seemed that the whole room was covered in blood and represented a slaughterhouse (an Old Testament altar).

On the night of the martyrdom of the Royal Family, Blessed Maria of Diveyevo raged and shouted: “The princesses with bayonets! Damned Jews! She raged terribly, and only then did they understand what she was screaming about. Under the arches of the Ipatiev basement, in which the Royal Martyrs and their Faithful servants completed their way of the cross, inscriptions left by the executioners were discovered. One of them consisted of four cabalistic signs. It was deciphered as follows: “Here, on the orders of satanic forces, the Tsar was sacrificed for the destruction of the State. All nations are informed of this.”

“...At the very beginning of this century, even before the First World War, small shops in the kingdom of Poland sold under the counter rather crudely printed postcards depicting a Jewish “tzaddik” (rabbi) with a Torah in one hand and a white bird in the other. The bird had the head of Emperor Nicholas II, with an imperial crown. Below... was the following inscription: “Let this sacrificial animal be my cleansing, it will be my substitute and cleansing sacrifice.”

During the investigation into the murder of Nicholas II and His Family, it was established that the day before this crime, a special train consisting of a steam locomotive and one passenger carriage arrived in Yekaterinburg from Central Russia. It brought a face in black clothes, looking like a Jewish rabbi. This person inspected the basement of the house and left a Kabbalistic inscription on the wall (the above-mentioned comp.)..." "Christography", magazine " A new book Russia."

...By this time, Shaya Goloshchekin, Beloborodov, Mobius and Voikov arrived at the “House of Special Purpose”. Yurovsky and Voikov began a thorough examination of the dead. They turned everyone over on their backs to make sure there were no signs of life left. At the same time, they took jewelry from their victims: rings, bracelets, gold watches. They took off the princesses' shoes, which they then gave to their mistresses.

Then the bodies were wrapped in pre-prepared overcoat cloth and transferred on a stretcher made of two shafts and sheets to a truck parked at the entrance. Zlokazovsky worker Lyukhanov was driving. Yurovsky, Ermakov and Vaganov sat down with him.

Under the cover of darkness, the truck drove away from Ipatiev’s house, went down Voznesensky Avenue towards Main Avenue and left the city through the suburb of Verkh-Isetsk. Here he turned onto the only road leading to the village of Koptyaki, located on the shores of Lake Isetskoye. The road there goes through the forest, crossing the Perm and Tagil railway lines. It was already dawn when, about 15 versts from Yekaterinburg and, not reaching four versts to Koptyakov, in a dense forest in the “Four Brothers” tract, the truck turned left and reached a small forest clearing near a series of abandoned mines, called “Ganina Yama”. Here the bodies of the Royal Martyrs were unloaded, cut up, doused with gasoline and thrown onto two large bonfires. The bones were destroyed using sulfuric acid. For three days and two nights, the killers, assisted by 15 responsible party communists specially mobilized for this purpose, carried out their diabolical work under the direct leadership of Yurovsky, on the instructions of Voikov and under the supervision of Goloshchekin and Beloborodov, who came from Yekaterinburg to the forest several times. Finally, by the evening of July 6/19, it was all over. The killers carefully destroyed traces of fires. The ashes and all that was left of the burnt bodies were thrown into a mine, which was then blown up with hand grenades, and the ground around was dug up and covered with leaves and moss to hide the traces of the crime committed here.

alt Beloborodov immediately telegraphed Sverdlov about the murder of the Royal Family. However, this latter did not dare to reveal the truth not only to the Russian people, but even to the Soviet government. At a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, which took place on July 5/18 under the chairmanship of Lenin, Sverdlov made an emergency statement. It was a complete pile of lies.

He said that a message had been received from Yekaterinburg about the execution of the Sovereign Emperor, that He was shot by order of the Ural Regional Council and that the Empress and Heir were evacuated to a “safe place.” He kept silent about the fate of the Grand Duchesses. In conclusion, he added that the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved the resolution of the Ural Council. Having listened in silence to Sverdlov’s statement, the members of the Council of People’s Commissars continued the meeting...

The next day it was announced in all newspapers in Moscow. After long negotiations with Sverdlov over a direct line, Goloshchekin made a similar message to the Ural Council, which was published in Yekaterinburg only on July 8/21, since the Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks, who allegedly arbitrarily shot the Royal Family, actually did not even dare to issue a message without Moscow’s permission about the execution. Meanwhile, as the front approached, the Bolsheviks began a panicky flight from Yekaterinburg. On July 12/25 it was taken by troops of the Siberian Army. On the same day, guards were assigned to Ipatiev’s house, and on July 17/30 a judicial investigation began, which restored the picture of this terrible crime in almost all details, and also established the identities of its organizers and perpetrators. In subsequent years, a number of new witnesses appeared, and new documents and facts became known, which further supplemented and clarified the investigation materials.

Investigating ritual murder of the Royal Family, investigator N.A. Sokolov, who literally sifted through all the earth at the site of the burning of the bodies of the Royal Family and discovered numerous fragments of crushed and burnt bones and extensive greasy masses, did not find a single tooth or a single fragment of them, and as is known, Teeth don't burn in fire. It turned out that after the murder Isaac Goloshchekin immediately went to Moscow with three barrels of alcohol... He took with him to Moscow these heavy barrels, sealed in wooden boxes and wrapped in ropes, and there was no place at all in the cabin of the carriage, without touching the contents in them in the cabin. Some of the accompanying security officials and train servants were interested in the mysterious cargo. To all questions, Goloshchekin answered that he was carrying samples of artillery shells for the Putilov plant. In Moscow, Goloshchekin took the boxes, went to Yankel Sverdlov and lived with him for five days without returning to the carriage. What documents in the literal sense of the word, and for what purpose, could be of interest to Yankel Sverdlov, Nakhamkes and Bronstein?

It is quite possible that the murderers, destroying the Royal bodies, separated honest heads from them, to prove to the leadership in Moscow about the liquidation of the entire Royal Family. This method, as a kind of “reporting,” was widely used in the Cheka during those terrible years of mass murder of the defenseless population of Russia by the Bolsheviks.

Exists rare photo: in the days of the February Troubles, the Tsar's children, sick with measles, upon recovery, all five of them took off with shaved heads - so that only their heads are visible, and they all look the same. The Empress burst into tears: five children’s heads seemed to be cut off...

There is no doubt that it was a ritual murder. This is evidenced not only by the ritual Kabbalistic inscriptions in the basement room of the Ipatiev House, but also by the murderers themselves.

The wrongdoers knew what they were doing. Their conversations are noteworthy. One of the regicides M.A. Medvedev (Kudrin) described the night of July 17 in December 1963:

...We went down to the first floor. That room is “very small.” “Yurovsky and Nikulin brought three chairs - the last thrones of the condemned Dynasty.”

Yurovsky declares out loud: “...we have been entrusted with the mission to put an end to the House of Romanov!”

And here is the moment immediately after the massacre: “Near the truck I meet Philip Goloshchekin.

Where have you been? - I ask him.

I walked around the square. I heard shots. It was audible. — He bent over the Tsar.

The end, you say, of the Romanov Dynasty?! Yes…

The Red Army soldier brought Anastasia's lap dog on a bayonet - when we walked past the door (to the stairs to the second floor), a long, plaintive howl was heard from behind the doors - the last salute to the All-Russian Emperor. The dog's corpse was thrown next to the king's.

Dogs - dog death! - Goloshchekin said contemptuously.”

After the fanatics initially threw the bodies of the Royal Martyrs into the mine, they decided to remove them from there in order to set them on fire. “From July 17th to 18th,” recalled P.Z. Ermakov, - I arrived in the forest again, brought a rope. I was lowered into the mine. I began to tie each one up individually, and two guys pulled them out. All the corpses were taken (sic! - S.F.) from the mine in order to put an end to the Romanovs and so that their friends would not think of creating HOLY RELICS.”

M.A., already mentioned by us. Medvedev testified: “Before us lay ready-made “MIRACLE WORKING POWERS”: ice water The mines were not only completely washed away by the blood, but also froze the bodies so much that they looked as if they were alive—a blush even appeared on the faces of the Tsar, the girls and women.”

One of the participants in the destruction of the royal bodies, security officer G.I. Sukhorukov recalled on April 3, 1928: “So that even if the whites found these corpses and did not guess by the number that these were the Royal Family, we decided to burn two of them at the stake, which we did, the first Heir ended up on OUR ALTAR and the second is the youngest daughter Anastasia...”

Participant in the regicide M.A. Medvedev (Kudrin) (December 1963): “Given the deep religiosity of the people in the province, it was impossible to allow even remains to be left to the enemy Royal Dynasty, from which the clergy would immediately fabricate “HOLY MIRACLE-WORKING POWERS”...".

Another security officer, G.P., also thought the same. Nikulin in his radio conversation on May 12, 1964: “... Even if a corpse had been discovered, then, obviously, some kind of POWERS were created from it, you know, around which some kind of counter-revolution would have grouped...”.

The same thing was confirmed the next day by his comrade I.I. Rodzinsky: “...It was a very serious matter.<…>If the White Guards had discovered these remains, do you know what they would have done? POWERS. Processions of the Cross, would use the darkness of the village. Therefore, the question of hiding traces was more important than even the execution itself.<…>This was the most important thing...”

No matter how distorted the bodies are, M.K. believed. Diterichs, - Isaac Goloshchekin understood perfectly well that for a Russian Christian it is not the finding of a physical whole body that matters, but their most insignificant remains, as sacred relics of those bodies whose soul is immortal and cannot be destroyed by Isaac Goloshchekin or another fanatic like him from the Jewish people "

Truly: even the demons believe and tremble!

...The Bolsheviks renamed the city of Yekaterinburg to Sverdlovsk - in honor of the main organizer of the murder of the Royal Family, and thereby not only confirmed the correctness of the accusations of the judiciary, but also their responsibility for this greatest crime in the history of mankind, committed by the world forces of evil...

The date of the savage murder itself—July 17—is no coincidence. On this day, the Russian Orthodox Church honors the memory of the holy noble prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who consecrated the autocracy of Rus' with his martyrdom. According to the chroniclers, the Jewish conspirators, who “accepted” Orthodoxy and were blessed by Him, killed him in the most cruel way. Holy Prince Andrei was the first to proclaim the idea of ​​Orthodoxy and Autocracy as the basis of the statehood of Holy Rus' and was, in fact, the first Russian Tsar.

According to God's providence, the Royal Martyrs were taken from earthly life all together. As a reward for boundless mutual love, which tightly bound them into one inseparable whole.

The Emperor courageously ascended Golgotha ​​and with meek submission to the Will of God accepted martyrdom. He left a legacy of an unclouded Monarchical Beginning as a precious Pledge received by Him from His Royal ancestors.

Hundreds of books have been published about the tragedy of the family of Tsar Nicholas II in many languages ​​of the world. These studies fairly objectively present the events of July 1918 in Russia. I had to read, analyze and compare some of these works. However, many mysteries, inaccuracies and even deliberate untruths remain.

Among the most reliable information are interrogation protocols and other documents of the Kolchak court investigator for especially important cases N.A. Sokolova. In July 1918, after the capture of Yekaterinburg by White troops, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Siberia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak appointed N.A. Sokolov was the leader in the case of the execution of the royal family in this city.

ON THE. Sokolov

Sokolov worked in Yekaterinburg for two years, conducted interrogations large quantity people involved in these events, tried to find the remains of the executed members of the royal family. After the capture of Yekaterinburg by Red troops, Sokolov left Russia and in 1925 in Berlin he published the book “The Murder of the Royal Family.” He took with him all four copies of his materials.

The Central Party Archives of the CPSU Central Committee, where I worked as a leader, kept mostly original (first) copies of these materials (about a thousand pages). How they got into our archive is unknown. I read them all carefully.

For the first time, a detailed study of materials related to the circumstances of the execution of the royal family was carried out on instructions from the CPSU Central Committee in 1964.

The detailed information “on some circumstances related to the execution of the Romanov royal family” dated December 16, 1964 (CPA Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the CPSU Central Committee, fund 588 inventory 3C) documents and objectively examines all these problems.

The certificate was then written by the head of the sector of the ideological department of the CPSU Central Committee, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, an outstanding political figure Russia. Not being able to publish the entire reference mentioned, I will cite only some passages from it.

“The archives did not reveal any official reports or resolutions preceding the execution of the Romanov royal family. There is no indisputable information about the participants in the execution. In this regard, materials published in the Soviet and foreign press, and some documents from Soviet party and state archives were studied and compared. In addition, the stories of the former assistant commandant of the Special Purpose House in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was kept, G.P., were recorded on tape. Nikulin and former member of the board of the Ural Regional Cheka I.I. Radzinsky. These are the only surviving comrades who had one way or another to do with the execution of the Romanov royal family. Based on the available documents and memories, often contradictory, it is possible to create the following picture of the execution itself and the circumstances surrounding this event. As you know, Nicholas II and members of his family were shot on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg. Documentary sources indicate that Nicholas II and his family were executed by decision of the Ural Regional Council. In protocol No. 1 of the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of July 18, 1918, we read: “Listen to: Report on the execution of Nikolai Romanov (telegram from Yekaterinburg). Resolved: Based on the discussion, the following resolution is adopted: The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee recognizes the decision of the Ural Regional Council as correct. Instruct tt. Sverdlov, Sosnovsky and Avanesov to draw up a corresponding notice for the press. Publish about the documents available in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - (diary, letters, etc.) of the former Tsar N. Romanov and instruct Comrade Sverdlov to form a special commission to analyze these papers and publish them.” The original, stored in the Central State Archive, is signed by Y.M. Sverdlov. As V.P. writes Milyutin (People's Commissar of Agriculture of the RSFSR), on the same day, July 18, 1918, a regular meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was held in the Kremlin late in the evening ( Council of People's Commissars.— Ed.) chaired by V.I. Lenin. “During Comrade Semashko’s report, Ya.M. entered the meeting room. Sverdlov. He sat down on a chair behind Vladimir Ilyich. Semashko finished his report. Sverdlov came up, leaned towards Ilyich and said something. “Comrades, Sverdlov asks to speak for a message,” Lenin announced. “I must say,” Sverdlov began in his usual even tone, “a message has been received that in Yekaterinburg, by order of the regional Council, Nikolai was shot.” Nikolai wanted to run. The Czechoslovaks were approaching. The Presidium of the Central Election Commission decided to approve. Silence of everyone. “Let’s now move on to an article-by-article reading of the draft,” suggested Vladimir Ilyich.” (Spotlight Magazine, 1924, p. 10). This is a message from Ya.M. Sverdlov was recorded in minutes No. 159 of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of July 18, 1918: “Listen to: An extraordinary statement by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, Comrade Sverdlov, on the execution of the former Tsar Nicholas II by the verdict of the Yekaterinburg Council of Deputies and on the approval of this verdict by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee. Resolved: Take note." The original of this protocol, signed by V.I. Lenin, kept in the party archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. A few months before this, at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the issue of transferring the Romanov family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg was discussed. Ya.M. Sverdlov speaks about this on May 9, 1918: “I must tell you that the question of the position of the former tsar was raised in our Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee back in November, at the beginning of December (1917) and since then has been raised several times, but we did not accept no decision, taking into account the fact that it is necessary to first become acquainted with exactly how, under what conditions, how reliable the security is, how, in a word, the former king Nikolai Romanov." At the same meeting, Sverdlov reported to the members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee that at the very beginning of April, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee heard a report from a representative of the committee of the team guarding the Tsar. “Based on this report, we came to the conclusion that it was impossible to leave Nikolai Romanov in Tobolsk any longer... The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the former Tsar Nicholas to a more reliable point. The center of the Urals, Yekaterinburg, was chosen as such a more reliable point.” Old Ural communists also say in their memoirs that the issue of transferring Nicholas II’s family was resolved with the participation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Radzinsky said that the initiative for the transfer belonged to the Ural Regional Council, and “the Center did not object” (Tape recording dated May 15, 1964). P.N. Bykov, a former member of the Ural Council, in his book “The Last Days of the Romanovs,” published in 1926 in Sverdlovsk, writes that at the beginning of March 1918, the regional military commissar I. Goloshchekin (party nickname “Philip”) went to Moscow specifically for this occasion. ). He was given permission to transfer the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.”

Further, in the certificate “On some circumstances related to the execution of the Romanov royal family”, terrible details of the brutal execution of the royal family are given. It talks about how the corpses were destroyed. It is said that about half a pound of diamonds and jewelry were found in the sewn-up corsets and belts of the dead. I would not like to discuss such inhumane acts in this article.

For many years, the world press has been spreading the assertion that “the true course of events and the refutation of the “falsifications of Soviet historians” are contained in Trotsky’s diary entries, which were not intended for publication, and therefore, they say, are especially frank. They were prepared for publication and published by Yu.G. Felshtinsky in the collection: “Leon Trotsky. Diaries and Letters" (Hermitage, USA, 1986).

I give an excerpt from this book.

“April 9 (1935) The White Press once very hotly debated the question of whose decision the royal family was put to death. The liberals seemed inclined to believe that the Ural executive committee, cut off from Moscow, acted independently. This is not true. The decision was made in Moscow. It happened during a critical period civil war, when I spent almost all my time at the front, and my memories of the affairs of the royal family are fragmentary.”

In other documents, Trotsky talks about a Politburo meeting a few weeks before the fall of Yekaterinburg, at which he defended the need for an open trial, “which was supposed to unfold the picture of the entire reign.”

“Lenin responded in the sense that it would be very good if it were feasible. But there may not be enough time. There were no debates because I did not insist on my proposal, being absorbed in other matters.”

In the next episode from the diaries, the most frequently quoted, Trotsky recalls how, after the execution, when asked about who decided the fate of the Romanovs, Sverdlov replied: “We decided here. Ilyich believed that we should not leave them a living banner, especially in the current difficult conditions.”

“They decided” and “Ilyich believed” can, and according to other sources, should be interpreted as the adoption of a general fundamental decision that the Romanovs cannot be left as a “living banner of counter-revolution.”

And is it so important that the direct decision to execute the Romanov family was made by the Ural Council?

I present another interesting document. This is a telegraphic request dated July 16, 1918 from Copenhagen, in which it was written: “To Lenin, member of the government. From Copenhagen. Here a rumor spread that the former king had been killed. Please provide the facts over the phone.” On the telegram, Lenin wrote in his own hand: “Copenhagen. The rumor is false, the former tsar is healthy, all rumors are lies of the capitalist press. Lenin."

We were unable to find out whether a reply telegram was sent then. But this was the very eve of that tragic day when the Tsar and his relatives were shot.

Ivan Kitaev- especially for Novaya

reference

Ivan Kitaev - historian, candidate of historical sciences, vice-president International Academy corporate governance. He went from a carpenter working on the construction of the Semipalatinsk test site and the Abakan-Tayshet road, from a military builder who built a uranium enrichment plant in the taiga wilderness, to an academician. Graduated from two institutes, the Academy social sciences, graduate school. He worked as secretary of the Togliatti city committee, Kuibyshev regional committee, director of the Central Party Archive, deputy director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. After 1991, he worked as head of the main department and head of a department of the Russian Ministry of Industry, and taught at the academy.

Lenin is characterized by the highest measure

About the organizers and those who ordered the murder of Nikolai Romanov’s family

In his diaries, Trotsky does not limit himself to quoting the words of Sverdlov and Lenin, but also expresses his own opinion about the execution of the royal family:

"Essentially, the decision ( about execution. — OH.) was not only expedient, but also necessary. The severity of the reprisal showed everyone that we would fight mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the royal family was needed not just to intimidate, terrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up one’s own ranks, to show that there was no retreat, that complete victory or complete destruction lay ahead. There were probably doubts and shaking of heads in the party's intellectual circles. But the masses of workers and soldiers did not doubt for a minute: they would not have understood or accepted any other decision. Lenin felt this well: the ability to think and feel for the masses and with the masses was extremely characteristic of him, especially at great political turns...”

Regarding the extreme measure characteristic of Ilyich, Lev Davidovich, of course, is the arch-right. Thus, Lenin, as is known, personally demanded that as many priests as possible be hanged, as soon as he received a signal that the masses in some localities had shown such an initiative. How can the people's power not support the initiative from below (and in reality the basest instincts of the crowd)!

As for the trial of the Tsar, which, according to Trotsky, Ilyich agreed to, but time was running out, then this trial would obviously end with Nikolai’s death sentence. Only in this case, unnecessary difficulties could arise with the royal family. And then how nice it turned out: the Ural Soviet decided - and that’s it, bribes are smooth, all power to the Soviets! Well, maybe only “in the intellectual circles of the party” there was some confusion, but it quickly passed, like with Trotsky himself. In his diaries, he cites a fragment of a conversation with Sverdlov after the Yekaterinburg execution:

“- Yes, where is the king? “It’s over,” he answered, “he was shot.” -Where is the family? - And his family is with him. - All? - I asked, apparently with a tinge of surprise. - All! - answered Sverdlov. - And what? He was waiting for my reaction. I didn't answer. - Who decided? “We decided here...”

Some historians emphasize that Sverdlov did not answer “they decided,” but “they decided,” which is supposedly important for identifying the main culprits. But at the same time they take Sverdlov’s words out of the context of his conversation with Trotsky. But here it is: what is the question, such is the answer: Trotsky asks who decided, so Sverdlov answers, “We decided here.” And then he speaks even more specifically - about the fact that Ilyich believed: “we cannot leave them a living banner.”

So in his resolution on the Danish telegram of July 16, Lenin was clearly disingenuous when speaking about the lies of the capitalist press regarding the “health” of the Tsar.

IN modern terms one can say this: if the Ural Soviet was the organizer of the murder of the royal family, then Lenin was the orderer. But in Russia, organizers rarely, and those who ordered crimes, almost never end up in the dock.

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 Federation was particularly interested in the version of the ritual nature of the murder. Orthodox Church(ROC). 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 people At that time, the head of the giant banking house Kuhn, Loeb and Company, 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 used his authority and influence in the American banking and financial sector, tried to block Russia’s access to foreign loans in America, and took part in financing the Japanese government during Russo-Japanese War, and also generously financed supporters of the Bolshevik revolution (the amount is said to be 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 would not have been able to find the best way“inherit” in history, rather than personally shoot in 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)

Rating historical significance execution of the Romanovs, 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.

It would seem difficult to find new evidence of the terrible events that occurred on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Even people far from the ideas of monarchism remember that it became fatal for the Romanov family. That night, Nicholas II, who abdicated the throne, the former Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their children - 14-year-old Alexei, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia - were killed. The fate of the sovereign was shared by the doctor E. S. Botkin, the maid A. Demidova, the cook Kharitonov and the footman. However, from time to time, witnesses are discovered who, after many years of silence, report new details of the execution of the royal family.

Many books have been written about the death of the Romanovs. There are still discussions about whether the murder of the Romanovs was a pre-planned operation and whether it was part of Lenin’s plans. There are still people who believe that at least the emperor’s children managed to escape from the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. The accusation of murdering the emperor and his family was an excellent trump card against the Bolsheviks, giving grounds to accuse them of inhumanity. Isn’t that why most of the documents and evidence telling about last days Romanovs, appeared and continues to appear in Western countries? But some researchers suggest that the crime for which Bolshevik Russia was accused was not committed at all...

From the very beginning, there were many mysteries in the investigation into the circumstances of the murder of the Romanovs. Two investigators were working on it relatively quickly. The first investigation began a week after the alleged execution. The investigator came to the conclusion that Nicholas was indeed executed on the night of July 16-17, but the lives of the former queen, her son and four daughters were spared.

At the beginning of 1919, a new investigation was carried out. It was headed by Nikolai Sokolov. Did he find indisputable evidence that the entire family of Nicholas 11 was killed in Yekaterinburg? It’s hard to say... While inspecting the mine where the bodies of the royal family were dumped, he discovered several things that for some reason did not catch the eye of his predecessor: a miniature pin that the prince used as a fish hook, gems, which were sewn into the belts of the Grand Duchesses, and the skeleton of a tiny dog, obviously the favorite of Princess Tatiana. If we remember the circumstances of the death of the Romanovs, it is difficult to imagine that the dog’s corpse was also transported from place to place, trying to hide... Sokolov did not find any human remains, except for several fragments of bones and the severed finger of a middle-aged woman, presumably the empress.

In 1919, Sokolov fled abroad to Europe. However, the results of his investigation were published only in 1924. Quite a long period of time, especially considering the huge number of emigrants who were interested in the Romanov family. According to Sokolov, all members of the royal family were killed on the fateful night. True, he was not the first to suggest that the empress and her children failed to escape. Back in 1921, this version was published by the Chairman of the Yekaterinburg Council Pavel Bykov. It would seem that one could forget about hopes that one of the Romanovs survived. However, both in Europe and in Russia, numerous impostors and pretenders constantly appeared, declaring themselves children of Nicholas. So, there were still doubts?

The first argument of supporters of revising the version of the death of the entire royal family was the announcement of the Bolsheviks about the execution of the former emperor, made on July 19. It said that only the tsar was executed, and Alexandra Feodorovna and her children were sent to a safe place. The second is that at that moment it was more profitable for the Bolsheviks to exchange Alexandra Fedorovna for political prisoners held captive in Germany. There were rumors about negotiations on this topic. Sir Charles Eliot, the British consul in Siberia, visited Yekaterinburg shortly after the death of the emperor. He met with the first investigator in the Romanov case, after which he informed his superiors that, in his opinion, the former Tsarina and her children left Yekaterinburg by train on July 17.

Almost at the same time, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, Alexandra's brother, allegedly informed his second sister, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, that Alexandra was safe. Of course, he could simply console his sister, who could not help but hear rumors about reprisals against the royal family. If Alexandra and her children had really been exchanged for political prisoners (Germany would have willingly taken this step to save its princess), all the newspapers of both the Old and New Worlds would have trumpeted about it. This would mean that the dynasty, linked by blood ties to many of the oldest monarchies in Europe, was not interrupted. But no articles followed, so the version that Nikolai’s entire family was killed was recognized as official.

In the early 1970s, English journalists Anthony Summers and Tom Menschld familiarized themselves with the official documents of the Sokolov investigation. And they found many inaccuracies and shortcomings in them that cast doubt on this version. Firstly, an encrypted telegram about the murder of the entire Romanov family, sent to Moscow on July 17, appeared in the case only in January 1919, after the dismissal of the first investigator. Secondly, the bodies have still not been found. And judging the empress’s death based on a single fragment of her body—a severed finger—was not entirely correct.

In 1988, seemingly irrefutable evidence appeared of the death of Nikolai, his wife and children. Former investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, screenwriter Geliy Ryabov, received a secret report from the son of Yakov Yurovsky (one of the main participants in the execution). It contained detailed information about where the remains of members were hidden imperial family. Ryabov began searching. He managed to find greenish-black bones with burn marks left by acid. In 1988, he published a report on his find.

In July 1991, Russian professional archaeologists arrived at the site where remains that supposedly belonged to the royal family were discovered. 9 skeletons were removed from the ground. Four of them belonged to Nicholas's servants and their family doctor. Another five - to the emperor, his wife and children. It was not easy to determine the identity of the remains. First, the skulls were compared with surviving photographs of members of the Romanov family. One of them was identified as the skull of Nicholas II. Later held comparative analysis DNA fingerprints. For this, the blood of a person who was related to the deceased was needed. The blood sample was provided by Britain's Prince Philip.

His dear grandmother on her mother's side she was the sister of the empress's grandmother. The results of the analysis showed a complete DNA match between the four skeletons, which gave grounds to officially recognize them as the remains of Alexandra and her three daughters. The bodies of the Tsarevich and Anastasia were not found. Two hypotheses have been put forward about this: either two descendants of the Romanov family managed to survive, or their bodies were burned. It seems that Sokolov was right after all, and his report turned out to be not a provocation, but a real coverage of the facts... In 1998, the remains of the royal family were transported with honors to St. Petersburg and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. True, there were immediately skeptics who were convinced that the cathedral contained the remains of completely different people.

In 2006, another DNA test was carried out. This time they compared samples of skeletons discovered in the Urals with fragments of relics Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna. A series of studies was carried out by Doctor of Sciences, employee of the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences L. Zhivotovsky. Colleagues from the USA helped him. The results of this analysis were a complete surprise: the DNA of Elizabeth and the would-be empress did not match. The first thought that came to the researchers’ minds was that the relics stored in the cathedral actually did not belong to Elizabeth, but to someone else. But this version had to be excluded: Elizabeth’s body was discovered in a mine near Alapaevsk in the fall of 1918, she was identified by people who were closely acquainted with her, including the confessor of the Grand Duchess, Father Seraphim.

This priest subsequently accompanied the coffin with the body of his spiritual daughter to Jerusalem and would not allow any substitution. This meant that at least one body did not belong to members of the royal family. Later, doubts arose about the identity of the remaining remains. On the skull, which had previously been identified as the skull of Nicholas II, there was no bone callus, which could not disappear even so many years after death. This mark appeared on the emperor's skull after an assassination attempt on him in Japan.

Yurovsky's protocol stated that the emperor was killed at point-blank range, and the executioner shot him in the head. Even taking into account the imperfection of the weapon, at least one bullet hole would certainly remain in the skull. But it lacks both inlet and outlet holes.

It is possible that the 1993 reports were fraudulent. Need to discover the remains of the royal family? Please, here they are. Conduct an examination to prove their authenticity? Here are the results of the examination! In the 90s of the last century there were all conditions for myth-making. It is not for nothing that the Russian Orthodox Church was so cautious, not wanting to recognize the found bones and count Nicholas and his family among the martyrs...
Conversations began again that the Romanovs were not killed, but hidden in order to be used in some kind of political game in the future. Could the emperor live in the USSR under a false name with his family?

On the one hand, this option cannot be excluded. The country is huge, there are many corners of it where no one would recognize Nicholas. The royal family They could also be placed in some kind of shelter, where they would be completely isolated from contact with the outside world, and therefore not dangerous. On the other hand, even if the remains found near Yekaterinburg are the result of falsification, this does not mean at all that the execution did not take place. They knew how to destroy the bodies of dead enemies and scatter their ashes back in ancient times. To burn a human body, 300-400 kilograms of wood are needed - in India, thousands of dead people are buried every day using the burning method. So is it really possible that the killers, who had an unlimited supply of firewood and a fair amount of acid, would not have been able to hide all traces?

More recently, in the fall of 2010, during work in the vicinity of the Old Koptyakovskaya road in the Sverdlovsk region, places were discovered where the killers hid jugs of acid. If there was no execution, where did they come from in the Ural wilderness?
Attempts to reconstruct the events preceding the execution were made repeatedly. As is known, after the renunciation imperial family They settled in the Alexander Palace, in August they moved to Tobolsk, and later to Yekaterinburg, to the notorious Ipatiev House.
Aviation engineer Pyotr Duz was sent to Sverdlovsk in the fall of 1941. One of his duties in the rear was the publication of textbooks and manuals to supply the country's military universities.

Getting acquainted with the property of the publishing house, Duz ended up in the Ipatiev House, in which at that time several nuns and two elderly women archivists lived. While inspecting the premises, Duz, accompanied by one of the women, went down to the basement and noticed strange grooves on the ceiling, which ended in deep recesses...

As part of his work, Peter often visited the Ipatiev House. Apparently, the elderly employees felt confidence in him, because one evening they showed him a small closet, in which, right on the wall, on rusty nails, hung a white glove, a lady’s fan, a ring, several buttons of different sizes... On a chair lay a small Bible on French and a couple of books in antique bindings. According to one of the women, all these things once belonged to members of the imperial family.

She also spoke about the last days of the Romanovs’ life, which, according to her, were unbearable. The security officers guarding the prisoners behaved incredibly rudely. All the windows in the house were boarded up. The security officers explained that these measures were taken for security purposes, but Duzya’s interlocutor was convinced that this was one of a thousand ways to humiliate the “former”. It must be said that the security officers had reasons for concern. According to the archivist’s recollections, the Ipatiev House was besieged every morning (!) by local residents and monks who tried to pass notes to the Tsar and his relatives and offered to help with household chores.

Of course, this cannot justify the behavior of the security officers, but any intelligence officer entrusted with the protection of an important person is simply obliged to limit his contacts with the outside world. But the behavior of the guards was not limited to just “not allowing sympathizers” to the members of the imperial family. Many of their antics were simply outrageous. They took particular pleasure in shocking Nikolai's daughters. They wrote obscene words on the fence and the toilet located in the yard, and tried to watch for girls in the dark corridors. No one has mentioned such details yet. Therefore, Duz listened carefully to the story of his interlocutor. She also reported a lot of new things about the last minutes of the Romanovs’ lives.

The Romanovs were ordered to go down to the basement. Nikolai asked to bring a chair for his wife. Then one of the guards left the room, and Yurovsky took out a revolver and began to line everyone up in one line. Most versions say that the executioners fired in volleys. But the inhabitants of the Ipatiev house recalled that the shots were chaotic.

Nikolai was killed immediately. But his wife and the princesses were destined for a more difficult death. The fact is that diamonds were sewn into their corsets. In some places they were located in several layers. The bullets ricocheted off this layer and went into the ceiling. The execution dragged on. When the Grand Duchesses were already lying on the floor, they were considered dead. But when they began to lift one of them to load the body into the car, the princess groaned and moved. Therefore, the security officers finished off her and her sisters with bayonets.

After the execution, no one was allowed into the Ipatiev House for several days - apparently, attempts to destroy the bodies took a lot of time. A week later, the security officers allowed several nuns to enter the house - the premises needed to be restored to order. Among them was the interlocutor Duzya. According to him, she recalled with horror the picture that opened in the basement of the Ipatiev House. There were many bullet holes on the walls, and the floor and walls in the room where the execution took place were covered in blood.

Later, experts from the Main State Center for Forensic Medical and Criminalistic Expertise of the Russian Ministry of Defense reconstructed the picture of the execution to the minute and to the millimeter. Using a computer, relying on the testimony of Grigory Nikulin and Anatoly Yakimov, they established where and at what moment the executioners and their victims were. Computer reconstruction showed that the Empress and the Grand Duchesses tried to shield Nicholas from the bullets.

Ballistic examination established many details: what weapons were used to kill members of the royal family, and approximately how many shots were fired. The security officers needed to pull the trigger at least 30 times...
Every year the chances of discovering the real remains of the Romanov family (if we recognize the Yekaterinburg skeletons as fakes) are dwindling. This means that the hope of one day finding an exact answer to the questions is fading: who died in the basement of the Ipatiev House, whether any of the Romanovs managed to escape, and what was the further fate of the heirs to the Russian throne...

V. M. Sklyarenko, I. A. Rudycheva, V. V. Syadro. 50 famous riddles history of the 20th century