And George 5

The personality of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II became the object of close attention after Perestroika in Russia.

In Soviet historiography, monarchical power and its representatives were the object of fierce criticism, so the revival of interest in the period royal power looks quite natural. But individual objective studies dissolved in the general mass of fantastic guesses and assumptions.

The idea that Nicholas II miraculously managed to avoid execution became extremely popular. Close relationship and physical similarity between Nicholas II and English king George V was sufficient grounds for the version that it was one and the same person.

Nicholas II is the last Russian emperor. It was here that the three-hundred-year history of the rule of Russia by the House of Romanov ended. He was the eldest son of the imperial couple Alexandra III and Maria Fedorovna Romanov.

After tragic death grandfather - Alexander II, Nikolai Alexandrovich officially became the heir to the Russian throne. Already in childhood he was distinguished by great religiosity. Nicholas's relatives noted that the future emperor had “a soul as pure as crystal, and passionately loving everyone.”

He himself loved to go to church and pray. He really liked to light and place candles in front of the images. The Tsarevich watched the process very carefully, and as the candles burned, he extinguished them and tried to do this so that the cinder smoked as little as possible.

During the service, Nikolai loved to sing along with the church choir, knew a lot of prayers, and had certain musical skills. The future Russian emperor grew up as a thoughtful and shy boy. At the same time, he was always persistent and firm in his views and beliefs.

Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova was born on June 7, 1872 in Darmstatt. The future Empress was the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse - Ludwig of Darmstadt and the English princess Alice.

The parents named their daughter Alix Elena Louise Beatrice. She was the sixth child in the family. It is worth noting that her grandmother was Queen Victoria of England.

Alix's mother loved England and her children received a real English upbringing. The daughter had oatmeal for breakfast, ate potatoes and meat for lunch, and for dessert she ate puddings and baked apples. Alix slept on a soldier's cot and took a cold bath in the morning.

Since childhood, Alix was characterized by shyness, which she had to struggle with in adulthood. Her mother died early, saw Alix and the death of her little brother, who died due to an accident. These events left a deep mark on her heart. After the death of her mother, Alix took up her studies.

Tsarevich Alexei was the long-awaited fifth child in. From the first days of his reign, Nicholas II dreamed of an heir. The Lord sent only daughters to the emperor.

Tsesarevich was born on August 12, 1904. The heir to the Russian throne was born a year after the Sarov celebrations. The entire royal family fervently prayed for the birth of a boy. Alexey inherited all the best from his father and mother.

His parents loved him very much, he reciprocated them greatly. His father was a real idol for Alexei Nikolaevich. The young prince tried to imitate him in everything.

The royal couple did not even think about what to name the newborn. Nicholas II had long wanted to name his future heir Alexei.

The Tsar said that “it’s time to break the line between Aleksandrov and Nikolaev.” Nicholas II also liked the personality, and the emperor wanted to name his son in honor of his great ancestor.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 18, 1901. The Emperor waited a long time for an heir, and when the long-awaited fourth child turned out to be a daughter, he was saddened. Soon the sadness passed, and the Emperor loved his fourth daughter no less than his other children.

They were expecting a boy, but a girl was born. With her agility, Anastasia could give any boy a head start. She wore simple clothes inherited from her older sisters. The fourth daughter's bedroom was not richly decorated.

The princess always took a cold shower every morning. It was not easy to keep track of her. As a child she was very nimble, she loved to climb where she could not get caught and hide.

When she was still a child, Grand Duchess Anastasia loved to play pranks and also make others laugh. In addition to cheerfulness, it reflects such character traits as wit, courage and observation.

Maria Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 27, 1899. She became the third child of the Emperor and Empress. Grand Duchess Maria Romanova was a typical Russian girl. She was characterized by good nature, cheerfulness and friendliness. She had a beautiful appearance and vitality.

According to the recollections of some of her contemporaries, she was very similar to her grandfather. The princess loved her parents very much and was strongly attached to them, much more than the other children of the royal couple.

The fact is that she was too small for her older sisters (and Tatyana), and too old for her younger sister and brother (Anastasia and).

Maria had big blue eyes. She was tall, with a bright, ruddy face - a true Russian beauty, she was the embodiment of kindness and cordiality. The sisters even took advantage of this kindness a little.

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 11, 1897, and was the second child of the Romanovs. Like Tatyana, her appearance resembled her mother, but her character was that of her father.

Tatyana was less emotional than her sister. Her eyes were like the eyes of the Empress, her figure was graceful, and her color blue eyes went harmoniously with brown hair. She was rarely naughty and had amazing, according to contemporaries, self-control.

She had a highly developed sense of duty and a penchant for order in everything. Due to her mother’s illness, she often took charge of the household; this did not burden the Grand Duchess at all. The Grand Duchess was very smart, she had creative abilities. She behaved with everyone simply and naturally. The princess was amazingly responsive, sincere and generous. The first daughter inherited her mother’s facial features, posture, and golden hair.

From Nikolai Alexandrovich, the daughter inherited her inner world. She, like her father, had an amazingly pure Christian soul. The princess was distinguished by an innate sense of justice and did not like lies.

Introduction page 3

Introduction

The fate of the last representatives of the Romanov dynasty is one of the most difficult, tragic and mysterious pages to study. national history. It reflected the entire revolutionary era with its faith, delusions, mercilessness, and suffering. Understand tragic fate the last Romanovs- means taking a step towards understanding the tragic path of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

And although we're talking about about the events of more than eighty years ago, interest in them does not wane. About two months ago, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family as Russian saints. But the question still remains unclear for many people: who is he? A bloody despot or a victim, a weak-willed representative of an exhausted dynasty, or a person who deliberately abandoned the power that burdened him.

The first publications appeared in the 20s. These are books by Wilton R., N.A. Sokolova, M.K. Diterichs, P. Gilliard and others, published outside Bolshevik Russia. They were based on primary sources obtained during the Kolchak investigation into the case of the execution of the Romanovs, and the personal observations of the authors.

At the same time, the first materials on this topic were published in the press of Soviet Russia; they were not the antipodes of foreign publications, because their authors participated in the same events, but were in opposite camps.

Sokolov’s materials are organically supplemented by M.K. Dieterichs. The value of his work is recognized in that it provides a wealth of information based on materials from investigations preceding Sokolov. The work of A. Summers and T. Mangold “The Romanov Dossier” represents a significant step forward in developing the history of the death of the Romanovs and opens a new stage in its coverage. First, the authors discovered a lot of fresh, previously unknown material. Secondly, they gave them their own alternative interpretation. Unlike previous publications, Summers and Mangold decided to assert that not all Romanovs died on the night of July 17, 1918. Another interesting statement is the conclusion that Germany was involved in the murder committed by the Bolsheviks.

For many years, the Soviet Union did not study the Ural tragedy. An attempt to return to these events was made in the early 70s. In 1972-73 the magazine published “a narrative about the deeds and end of the last tsar from the Romanov dynasty” M.K. Kaevinova "Twenty-three steps down". This is one of the well-known domestic publications on the royal topic, although it clearly shows a tendentious approach.

A radical change in attitude towards the royal theme occurred in the late 80s - early 90s. during the era of perestroika. It began with journal publications by E. Radzinsky and G. Ryabov in Ogonyok and Rodina. They for the first time published fragments from previously carefully hidden documents about the Yekaterinburg execution (a note by Ya. Yurovsky and the memoirs of G. Nikulin).

In 1991, a whole series of books about the royal family was published. Of these, the books by O. Platonov “The Murder of the Royal Family”, Y. Buranov, V. Khrustalev “The Death of the Imperial House”, G. Ioffe “Revolution and the Fate of the Romanovs”, E. Radzinsky “The Last Tsar. The Life and Death of Nicholas II” stand out. These books contain new documents, cover events from a modern perspective, without the extremes previously characteristic of both Soviet and foreign literature.

Not all works on the fate of the royal family have been named. But even this list makes it possible to present a wide range of opinions on this issue. Questions such as why the royal family was left halfway between Tobolsk and Moscow, what domestic and foreign political circumstances accelerated its death, who gave the order about this, where the remains were hidden and whether anyone remained alive remain unclear. How did it happen that not a single political force, either in Russia or abroad, could influence the fate of, if not the entire family, then at least the female part of it, where the archives and jewelry of the Romanovs disappeared. All these questions, which are important problems in Russian history, are still waiting to be resolved.

The purpose of this work is to try to determine what the tragedy of the last representatives of the Romanov dynasty was. To achieve this goal, it seems necessary to me to highlight the following issues: the results of the reign of Nicholas II and the influence of personal qualities on them last emperor; the tragedy of the death of Nicholas II, his family and other representatives of the House of Romanov; the problem of burial of the royal remains and canonization of Nicholas II and his family.

Chapter I . The path to a tragic end.

1.1. Collapse of the monarchy.

IN Russian history Over the last two and a half centuries, a pattern can be traced: despite the extremely tough regime in the country, every second ruler was forcibly deprived not only of the throne, but also of life. Peter III strangled, the next Catherine II died on the throne, her successor Paul I was killed, and so on through one, with the exception of Alexander I and Nicholas I. The last emperor Nicholas II shared the same fate, despite the fact that he had abdicated the throne the day before October revolution.

The reason for this pattern is the struggle between established national traditions and innovation, which begins in the second half of the 17th century. The middle position of Russia, the largest world power, between European and Asian civilizations, the need to quickly respond to changes on the one hand and on the other is not enough high level political and cultural development a significant part of the population gave rise to a particularly acute polarization of opinions in society about the struggle in the ruling elite. This struggle resulted in popular riots and revolutions, palace conspiracies and coups, which at first glance were far from the main line of world development, but ultimately reflected it.

At the beginning of the 20th century. Despite all the contradictory state policies implemented by Nicholas II, favorable conditions were created for the development of the country.

On the one hand, Russia remained an agrarian, predominantly peasant country. On the eve of the 1917 revolution, it produced 1/3 more grain than the United States, Argentina and Canada combined. 12-15 million tons of grain were exported abroad annually, a large number of oil, flax, eggs, etc. 1 . Only for animal oil produced in Siberia and sold abroad, the country received more gold than was mined in the famous Siberian mines.

On the other hand, the beginning of the century was a period of major industrial expansion Russian state, which provided it with leading positions in the world economy in many important indicators. In terms of growth rates of industrial production, our country was ahead of the United States 2 . At the beginning of the century, Russia ranked first in the world in oil production.

Reforms S.Yu. Witte and P.A. Stolypin, if fully implemented, could become fertile ground for the flourishing of the Russian economy. Relatively successful development even then allowed Russia to have a positive balance foreign trade and a stable convertible currency. However, these reforms were overthrown and were not completed.

Contradictions also appeared in the political sphere. Upon ascending the throne, Nicholas II declared his categorical commitment to autocracy. But it was he who laid the foundation for representative power in the country in the form of the State Duma, allowed the existence of various political parties. According to the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, Russian citizens received the right to personal integrity, freedom of speech, press, and assembly. On the one hand, these freedoms were a concession of the shaky throne to democracy, on the other hand, they testified to a movement towards a right-wing state.

The foreign policy of Nicholas II was also contradictory. Trying to suppress the revolution of 1905 with the help of the war with Japan, the tsar only increased its scope.

Not wanting to fight with Germany, he meanwhile plunged the country into a terrible massacre, which was the prelude to the death of the monarchy and himself.

The contradiction between internal and foreign policy, sometimes reaching paradoxes, could not leave either the immediate circle of Nicholas II or the people indifferent. The court was mired in intrigue, the extreme expression of which was Rasputinism, and the people

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1 Brasol B. The reign of Emperor Nicholas II 1894-1917. in numbers and facts.

2 Platonov O. Murder of the Royal Family. M., 1991. P. 27.

went to the streets. The king had to abdicate the throne. The abdication took place without resistance. Thus, Nicholas II tried to prevent a civil war, and in fact provoked it, since the polar forces that inherited his power inevitably had to

collide. Ultimately, the tragedy of the emperor lay in the insoluble contradiction between the deep conviction of the need to preserve the traditional way of Russia and the inevitability of modernization that the time demanded. The country's leadership did not take the path of reform in time, “but stubbornly drove the disease inside,” which is why society followed the only path left to it - the path of revolution.

The family of the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas Romanov, was killed in 1918. Due to the concealment of facts by the Bolsheviks, a number of alternative versions appear. For a long time there were rumors that turned the murder of the royal family into a legend. There were theories that one of his children escaped.

What really happened in the summer of 1918 near Yekaterinburg? You will find the answer to this question in our article.

Background

Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century was one of the most economically developed countries peace. Nikolai Alexandrovich, who came to power, turned out to be a meek and noble man. In spirit he was not an autocrat, but an officer. Therefore, with his views on life, it was difficult to manage the crumbling state.

The revolution of 1905 showed the insolvency of the government and its isolation from the people. In fact, there were two powers in the country. The official one is the emperor, and the real one is officials, nobles and landowners. It was the latter who, with their greed, licentiousness and short-sightedness, destroyed the once great power.

Strikes and rallies, demonstrations and bread riots, famine. All this indicated decline. The only way out could be the accession to the throne of an imperious and tough ruler who could take complete control of the country.

Nicholas II was not like that. It was focused on construction railways, churches, improving the economy and culture in society. He managed to make progress in these areas. But positive changes affected mainly only the top of society, while the majority of ordinary residents remained at the level of the Middle Ages. Splinters, wells, carts and everyday life of peasants and craftsmen.

After joining Russian Empire to the First world war The people's discontent only intensified. The execution of the royal family became the apotheosis of general madness. Next we will look at this crime in more detail.

Now it is important to note the following. After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and his brother from the throne, soldiers, workers and peasants began to take the leading roles in the state. People who have not previously dealt with management, who have a minimal level of culture and superficial judgments, gain power.

Small local commissars wanted to curry favor with senior officials. The rank and file and junior officers simply mindlessly followed orders. Time of Troubles, which came during these turbulent years, brought unfavorable elements to the surface.

Next you will see more photos of the Romanov royal family. If you look at them carefully, you will notice that the clothes of the emperor, his wife and children are by no means pompous. They are no different from the peasants and guards who surrounded them in exile.
Let's figure out what really happened in Yekaterinburg in July 1918.

Course of events

The execution of the royal family was planned and prepared for quite a long time. While power was still in the hands of the Provisional Government, they tried to protect them. Therefore, after the events in July 1917 in Petrograd, the emperor, his wife, children and retinue were transferred to Tobolsk.

The place was deliberately chosen to be calm. But in fact, they found one from which it was difficult to escape. By that time, the railway lines had not yet been extended to Tobolsk. The nearest station was two hundred and eighty kilometers away.

They sought to protect the emperor's family, so the exile to Tobolsk became for Nicholas II a respite before the subsequent nightmare. The king, queen, their children and retinue stayed there for more than six months.

But in April, after a fierce struggle for power, the Bolsheviks recalled “unfinished business.” The decision is made to deliver all imperial family to Yekaterinburg, which at that time was a stronghold of the red movement.

The first to be transferred from Petrograd to Perm was Prince Mikhail, the Tsar’s brother. At the end of March, their son Mikhail and three children of Konstantin Konstantinovich were deported to Vyatka. Later, the last four are transferred to Yekaterinburg.

The main reason for the transfer to the east was family ties Nikolai Alexandrovich with the German Emperor Wilhelm, as well as the proximity of the Entente to Petrograd. The revolutionaries feared the release of the Tsar and the restoration of the monarchy.

The role of Yakovlev, who was tasked with transporting the emperor and his family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, is interesting. He knew about the assassination attempt on the Tsar that was being prepared by the Siberian Bolsheviks.

Judging by the archives, there are two opinions of experts. The first ones say that in reality this is Konstantin Myachin. And he received a directive from the Center to “deliver the Tsar and his family to Moscow.” The latter are inclined to believe that Yakovlev was a European spy who intended to save the emperor by taking him to Japan through Omsk and Vladivostok.

After arriving in Yekaterinburg, all prisoners were placed in Ipatiev’s mansion. A photo of the Romanov royal family was preserved when Yakovlev handed it over to the Urals Council. The place of detention among the revolutionaries was called a “house of special purpose.”

Here they were kept for seventy-eight days. The relationship of the convoy to the emperor and his family will be discussed in more detail below. For now, it is important to focus on the fact that it was rude and boorish. They were robbed, psychologically and morally oppressed, abused so that they were not noticeable outside the walls of the mansion.

Considering the results of the investigations, we will take a closer look at the night when the monarch with his family and retinue were shot. Now we note that the execution took place at approximately half past two in the morning. Life physician Botkin, on the orders of the revolutionaries, woke up all the prisoners and went down with them to the basement.

A terrible crime took place there. Yurovsky commanded. He blurted out a prepared phrase that “they are trying to save them, and the matter cannot be delayed.” None of the prisoners understood anything. Nicholas II only had time to ask that what was said be repeated, but the soldiers, frightened by the horror of the situation, began to shoot indiscriminately. Moreover, several punishers fired from another room through the doorway. According to eyewitnesses, not everyone was killed the first time. Some were finished off with a bayonet.

Thus, this indicates a hasty and unprepared operation. The execution became lynching, which the Bolsheviks, who had lost their heads, resorted to.

Government disinformation

The execution of the royal family still remains an unsolved mystery of Russian history. Responsibility for this atrocity may lie both with Lenin and Sverdlov, for whom the Urals Soviet simply provided an alibi, and directly with the Siberian revolutionaries, who succumbed to general panic and lost their heads in wartime conditions.

Nevertheless, immediately after the atrocity, the government began a campaign to whiten its reputation. Among researchers studying this period, the latest actions are called a “disinformation campaign.”

The death of the royal family was proclaimed the only necessary measure. Since, judging by the ordered Bolshevik articles, a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was uncovered. Some white officers planned to attack the Ipatiev mansion and free the emperor and his family.

The second point, which was furiously hidden for many years, was that eleven people were shot. The Emperor, his wife, five children and four servants.

The events of the crime were not disclosed for several years. Official recognition was given only in 1925. This decision was prompted by the publication of a book in Western Europe that outlined the results of Sokolov’s investigation. Then Bykov is instructed to write about “the current course of events.” This brochure was published in Sverdlovsk in 1926.

Nevertheless, the lies of the Bolsheviks at the international level, as well as hiding the truth from the common people, shook faith in power. and its consequences, according to Lykova, became the reason for people's distrust of the government, which did not change even in post-Soviet times.

The fate of the remaining Romanovs

The execution of the royal family had to be prepared. A similar “warm-up” was the liquidation of the Emperor’s brother Mikhail Alexandrovich and his personal secretary.
On the night from the twelfth to the thirteenth of June 1918, they were forcibly taken from the Perm hotel outside the city. They were shot in the forest, and their remains have not yet been discovered.

A statement was made to the international press that Grand Duke was kidnapped by attackers and went missing. For Russia, the official version was the escape of Mikhail Alexandrovich.

The main purpose of such a statement was to speed up the trial of the emperor and his family. They started a rumor that the escapee could contribute to the release of the “bloody tyrant” from “just punishment.”

It was not only the last royal family that suffered. In Vologda, eight people related to the Romanovs were also killed. The victims include the princes of the imperial blood Igor, Ivan and Konstantin Konstantinovich, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Prince Paley, the manager and the cell attendant.

All of them were thrown into the Nizhnyaya Selimskaya mine, not far from the city of Alapaevsk. Only he resisted and was shot. The rest were stunned and thrown down alive. In 2009, they were all canonized as martyrs.

But the thirst for blood did not subside. In January 1919 in Peter and Paul Fortress four more Romanovs were also shot. Nikolai and Georgy Mikhailovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich and Pavel Alexandrovich. Official version The revolutionary committee was as follows: the liquidation of hostages in response to the murder of Liebknecht and Luxemburg in Germany.

Memoirs of contemporaries

Researchers have tried to reconstruct how members of the royal family were killed. The best way to cope with this is the testimony of the people who were present there.
The first such source is notes from personal diary Trotsky. He noted that the blame lies with the local authorities. He especially singled out the names of Stalin and Sverdlov as the people who made this decision. Lev Davidovich writes that as Czechoslovak troops approached, Stalin’s phrase that “the Tsar cannot be handed over to the White Guards” became a death sentence.

But scientists doubt the accurate reflection of events in the notes. They were made in the late thirties, when he was working on a biography of Stalin. A number of mistakes were made there, indicating that Trotsky forgot many of those events.

The second evidence is information from Milyutin’s diary, which mentions the murder of the royal family. He writes that Sverdlov came to the meeting and asked Lenin to speak. As soon as Yakov Mikhailovich said that the Tsar was gone, Vladimir Ilyich abruptly changed the topic and continued the meeting as if the previous phrase had not happened.

The most complete history of the royal family in last days life was restored based on the interrogation protocols of the participants in these events. People from the guard, punitive and funeral squads testified several times.

Although they are often confused, the main idea remains the same. All the Bolsheviks who were close to the tsar in recent months had complaints against him. Some were in prison themselves in the past, others had relatives. In general, they gathered a contingent of former prisoners.

In Yekaterinburg, anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries put pressure on the Bolsheviks. In order not to lose authority, the local council decided to quickly put an end to this matter. Moreover, there was a rumor that Lenin wanted to exchange the royal family for a reduction in the amount of indemnity.

According to the participants, this was the only solution. In addition, many of them boasted during interrogations that they personally killed the emperor. Some with one, and some with three shots. Judging by the diaries of Nikolai and his wife, the workers guarding them were often drunk. That's why real events cannot be restored for certain.

What happened to the remains

The murder of the royal family took place secretly and was planned to be kept secret. But those responsible for the disposal of the remains failed to cope with their task.

A very large funeral team was assembled. Yurovsky had to send many back to the city “as unnecessary.”

According to the testimony of the participants in the process, they spent several days with the task. At first it was planned to burn the clothes and throw the naked bodies into the mine and cover them with earth. But the collapse did not work out. We had to extract the remains of the royal family and come up with another method.

It was decided to burn them or bury them along the road that was just under construction. The preliminary plan was to disfigure the bodies with sulfuric acid beyond recognition. It is clear from the protocols that two corpses were burned and the rest were buried.

Presumably the body of Alexei and one of the servant girls burned.

The second difficulty was that the team was busy all night, and in the morning travelers began to appear. An order was given to cordon off the area and prohibit travel from the neighboring village. But the secrecy of the operation was hopelessly failed.

The investigation showed that attempts to bury the bodies were near shaft No. 7 and the 184th crossing. In particular, they were discovered near the latter in 1991.

Kirsta's investigation

On July 26-27, 1918, peasants discovered a golden cross with precious stones. The find was immediately delivered to Lieutenant Sheremetyev, who was hiding from the Bolsheviks in the village of Koptyaki. It was carried out, but later the case was assigned to Kirsta.

He began to study the testimony of witnesses pointing to the murder of the Romanov royal family. The information confused and frightened him. The investigator did not expect that this was not the consequences of a military court, but a criminal case.

He began questioning witnesses who gave conflicting testimony. But based on them, Kirsta concluded that perhaps only the emperor and his heir were shot. The rest of the family was taken to Perm.

It seems that this investigator set himself the goal of proving that not the entire Romanov royal family was killed. Even after he clearly confirmed the crime, Kirsta continued to interrogate more people.

So, over time, he finds a certain doctor Utochkin, who proved that he treated Princess Anastasia. Then another witness spoke about the transfer of the emperor’s wife and some of the children to Perm, which she knew about from rumors.

After Kirsta completely confused the case, it was given to another investigator.

Sokolov's investigation

Kolchak, who came to power in 1919, ordered Dieterichs to understand how the Romanov royal family was killed. The latter entrusted this case to the investigator for particularly important cases of the Omsk District.

His last name was Sokolov. This man began to investigate the murder of the royal family from scratch. Although all the paperwork was handed over to him, he did not trust Kirsta’s confusing protocols.

Sokolov again visited the mine, as well as Ipatiev’s mansion. Inspection of the house was made difficult by the location of the Czech army headquarters there. However, a German inscription on the wall was discovered, a quote from Heine's verse about the monarch being killed by his subjects. The words were clearly scratched out after the city was lost to the Reds.

In addition to documents on Yekaterinburg, the investigator was sent cases on the Perm murder of Prince Mikhail and on the crime against the princes in Alapaevsk.

After the Bolsheviks recapture this region, Sokolov takes all office work to Harbin, and then to Western Europe. Photos of the royal family, diaries, evidence, etc. were evacuated.

He published the results of the investigation in 1924 in Paris. In 1997, Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, transferred all paperwork to the Russian government. In exchange, he was given the archives of his family, taken away during the Second World War.

Modern investigation

In 1979, a group of enthusiasts led by Ryabov and Avdonin archival documents discovered a burial near the 184 km station. In 1991, the latter stated that he knew where the remains of the executed emperor were. An investigation was re-launched to finally shed light on the murder of the royal family.

The main work on this case was carried out in the archives of the two capitals and in the cities that appeared in the reports of the twenties. Protocols, letters, telegrams, photos of the royal family and their diaries were studied. In addition, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, research was carried out in the archives of most countries Western Europe and the USA.

The investigation of the burial was carried out by the senior prosecutor-criminologist Soloviev. In general, he confirmed all of Sokolov’s materials. His message to Patriarch Alexei II states that “under the conditions of that time, the complete destruction of the corpses was impossible.”

In addition, the investigation of the late 20th - early 21st centuries completely refuted alternative versions of events, which we will discuss later.
The canonization of the royal family was carried out in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia - in 2000.

Since the Bolsheviks tried to keep this crime secret, rumors spread, contributing to the formation of alternative versions.

Yes, according to one of them it was ritual murder due to the conspiracy of the Jewish Freemasons. One of the investigator's assistants testified that he saw "kabbalistic symbols" on the walls of the basement. When checked, these turned out to be traces of bullets and bayonets.

According to Dieterichs' theory, the emperor's head was cut off and preserved in alcohol. The finds of remains also refuted this crazy idea.

Rumors spread by the Bolsheviks and false testimonies of “eyewitnesses” gave rise to a series of versions about the people who escaped. But photographs of the royal family in the last days of their lives do not confirm them. And also the found and identified remains refute these versions.

Only after all the facts of this crime were proven, the canonization of the royal family took place in Russia. This explains why it was held 19 years later than abroad.

So, in this article we got acquainted with the circumstances and investigation of one of the most terrible atrocities in the history of Russia in the twentieth century.

First, the Provisional Government agrees to fulfill all the conditions. But already on March 8, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseev informed the Tsar that he “can consider himself, as it were, under arrest.” After some time, a notification of refusal comes from London, which previously agreed to accept the Romanov family. On March 21, former Emperor Nicholas II and his entire family were officially taken into custody.

A little more than a year later, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family of the Russian Empire would be shot in a cramped basement in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were subjected to hardships, getting closer and closer to their grim ending. Let's take a look at rare photos members of the last royal family of Russia, made some time before the execution.

After February Revolution In 1917, the last royal family of Russia, by decision of the Provisional Government, was sent to the Siberian city of Tobolsk to protect them from the wrath of the people. A few months earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated the throne, ending more than three hundred years of the Romanov dynasty.

The Romanovs began their five-day journey to Siberia in August, on the eve of Tsarevich Alexei's 13th birthday. The seven family members were joined by 46 servants and a military escort. The day before reaching their destination, the Romanovs sailed past the home village of Rasputin, whose eccentric influence on politics may have contributed to their dark ending.

The family arrived in Tobolsk on August 19 and began to live in relative comfort on the banks of the Irtysh River. In the Governor's Palace, where they were housed, the Romanovs were well fed, and they could communicate a lot with each other, without being distracted by state affairs and official events. The children performed plays for their parents, and the family often went into the city for religious services - this was the only form of freedom they were allowed.

When the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of 1917, the regime of the royal family began to tighten slowly but surely. The Romanovs were forbidden to attend church and generally leave the territory of the mansion. Soon coffee, sugar, butter and cream disappeared from their kitchen, and the soldiers assigned to protect them wrote obscene and offensive words on the walls and fences of their home.

Things went from bad to worse. In April 1918, a commissar, a certain Yakovlev, arrived with an order to transport the former tsar from Tobolsk. The Empress was adamant in her desire to accompany her husband, but Comrade Yakovlev had other orders that complicated everything. At this time, Tsarevich Alexei, suffering from hemophilia, began to suffer from paralysis of both legs due to a bruise, and everyone expected that he would be left in Tobolsk, and the family would be divided during the war.

The commissioner's demands to move were adamant, so Nikolai, his wife Alexandra and one of their daughters, Maria, soon left Tobolsk. They eventually boarded a train to travel through Yekaterinburg to Moscow, where the Red Army was headquartered. However, Commissar Yakovlev was arrested for trying to save the royal family, and the Romanovs got off the train in Yekaterinburg, in the heart of the territory captured by the Bolsheviks.

In Yekaterinburg, the rest of the children joined their parents - everyone was locked in Ipatiev’s house. The family was placed on the second floor and completely cut off from outside world, boarding up the windows and posting guards at the doors. The Romanovs were allowed to go out Fresh air just five minutes a day.

At the beginning of July 1918, the Soviet authorities began to prepare for the execution of the royal family. The ordinary soldiers on guard were replaced by representatives of the Cheka, and the Romanovs were allowed to go to church services for the last time. The priest who conducted the service later admitted that none of the family said a word during the service. For July 16, the day of the murder, five truckloads of barrels of benzidine and acid were ordered to quickly dispose of the bodies.

Early in the morning of July 17, the Romanovs were gathered and told about the advance of the White Army. The family believed that they were simply being moved to a small, lighted basement for their own protection, because it would soon be unsafe here. Approaching the place of execution, the last Tsar of Russia passed by trucks, in one of which his body would soon lie, not even suspecting what a terrible fate awaited his wife and children.

In the basement, Nikolai was told that he was about to be executed. Not believing his own ears, he asked: “What?” - immediately after which the security officer Yakov Yurovsky shot the Tsar. Another 11 people pulled their triggers, filling the basement with Romanov blood. Alexei survived the first shot, but was finished off by Yurovsky’s second shot. The next day, the bodies of members of the last royal family of Russia were burned 19 km from Yekaterinburg, in the village of Koptyaki.

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

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

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

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

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

On this topic

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

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

This kind of money is worth fighting for

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Versions of life after death

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

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

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

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

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