Ilya Belous

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

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

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

Investigator for Particularly Important Cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee under the RF Prosecutor's Office V.N. Solovyov, who led the criminal investigation into the death of the royal family, testified that there was not a single evidence that the execution was sanctioned by Lenin or Sverdlov, or of any involvement in the murder.

But first things first.

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

Kerensky originally intended to send Nicholas II to England via Murmansk, but this initiative met with no support from either the British or the Provisional Government.

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

According to Karabchevsky's lawyer, Kerensky did not rule out a bloody denouement:

Kerensky leaned back in his chair, thought for a moment, and, passing the forefinger of his left hand along his neck, made an energetic gesture upwards. I and everyone understood that this was a hint of hanging. - Two, three victims, perhaps, are necessary! - said Kerensky, looking around us with his eyes that were either mysterious or half-sighted thanks to the upper eyelids hanging heavily over our eyes. // Karabchevsky N. P. Revolution and Russia. Berlin, 1921. Vol. 2. What my eyes have seen. Ch. 39.

After the October Revolution, the Soviet government, according to Nicholas II, took a position on the organization open court over the former emperor.

February 20, 1918 At a meeting of the commission under the Council of People's Commissars, the issue of "preparing an investigative material on Nikolai Romanov" was considered. For judgment on former king Lenin spoke.

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

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

“... Instruct the commissar for military affairs to immediately form a detachment of 200 people. (including 30 people from the Partisan detachment of the Central Executive Committee, 20 people from the detachment of the Left S.R.) and send them to Tobolsk to reinforce the guard and, if possible, immediately transport all those arrested to Moscow. This resolution is not subject to publication in the press. Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya. Sverdlov. Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee V. Avanesov.

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

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

They believed that it was urgent to deal with Nicholas II. A plan was even developed to kill him on the way from Tobolsk to Moscow. The chairman of the Ural Regional Council, Beloborodov, wrote in his memoirs in 1920: “We believed that, perhaps, there was even no need to bring Nikolai to Yekaterinburg, that if favorable conditions were provided during his transfer, he should be shot on the road. Zaslavsky had such an order (the commander of the Yekaterinburg detachment sent to Tobolsk. - I.K.) and all the time tried to take steps to implement it, although to no avail. " // Kovalchenko I.D. The age-old problem of Russian history // Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, No. 10, 1994.

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

In a letter from the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Sverdlov, Ya.M. Uraloblsovet says:

“The task of Yakovlev is to deliver | Nicholas II | to Yekaterinburg alive and hand over either to the chairman Beloborodov or Goloshchekin. // Resolution on the termination of the criminal case No. 18/123666-93 "On the clarification of the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919", paragraphs 5-6.

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

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

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

“... it is necessary to dwell on one extremely important circumstance in the line of conduct of the Regional Council. We thought that there was probably no need to bring Nikolai to Yekaterinburg, that if favorable conditions were provided during his transfer, he should be shot on the road. Such an order had | the commander of the Yekaterinburg detachment | Zaslavsky and all the time tried to take steps towards its implementation, although to no avail. In addition, Zaslavsky, obviously, behaved in such a way that his intentions were unraveled by Yakovlev, which to some extent explains the misunderstandings that arose later between Zaslavsky and Yakovlev on a rather large scale. // Resolution on the termination of the criminal case No. 18/123666-93 "On the clarification of the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919", paragraphs 5-6.

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

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

“... He was a member of the Red Army in the 4th hundred in Yekaterinburg ... Gusyatsky ... says that Commissar Yakovlev is traveling with the Moscow detachment, we need to wait for him ... assistant instructor Ponomarev and instructor Bogdanov begin: “We ... now decided this: on the way to Tyumen let's set up an ambush. When Yakovlev rides with Romanov, as soon as they catch up with us, you must use machine guns and rifles to whip the entire Yakovlev detachment to the ground. And don't tell anyone. If they ask what kind of detachment you are, then say that you are from Moscow, and do not say who your boss is, because you need to do this apart from the regional one and in general all the Soviets. I then asked the question: “Robbers, then, to be?” I, they say, personally do not agree with your plans. If you need to kill Romanov, then let someone alone decide, but I don’t allow such a thought in my head, bearing in mind that our entire armed force is on guard of defense Soviet power, and not for individual benefits, and people, if Commissar Yakovlev, seconded for him, from the Council People's Commissars, so he must introduce him to where he is ordered. But we were not and cannot be robbers, so that because of one Romanov, they would shoot the same Red Army comrades as we are. ... After that, Gusyatsky became even more angry with me. I see that the matter is beginning to touch my life. Looking for ways out, I finally decided to escape with Yakovlev's detachment. // Resolution on the termination of the criminal case No. 18/123666-93 "On the clarification of the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919", paragraphs 5-6.

There was also a plan, tacitly approved by the Ural Council, to liquidate the royal family with the help of a train wreck on the way from Tyumen to Yekaterinburg.

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

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

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

On April 27, 1918, Yakovlev sends a telegram to Sverdlov, in which he testifies to the attempts of the local Bolsheviks to kill the Tsar's family (calling it with the code word "baggage") reflected by his fighters:

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

When Nicholas II arrived in Yekaterinburg, local authorities provoked a crowd at the Yekaterinburg I station, which tried to arrange lynching of the family of the former emperor. Commissar Yakovlev acted decisively, threatening those who attempted on the tsar to use machine guns against them. Only this allowed to avoid the death of the royal family.

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

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

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

Sentiment towards Nicholas II in the Urals

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

July 3, 1918 The Council of People's Commissars received a telegram from the Kolomna District Committee of the Party. It reported that the Kolomna Bolshevik organization

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

The Ural elite was all “leftist”. This was manifested in the issue of the Brest peace, and in the separatist aspirations of the Ural Regional Council, and in relation to the deposed tsar, whom the Urals did not trust Moscow. Ural Chekist I. Radzinsky recalled:

“The dominance in the head was left, left-communist ... Beloborodov, Safarov, Nikolai Tolmachev, Evgeny Preobrazhensky - they were all leftists.”

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

In their "leftism" the Ural Bolsheviks were forced to compete with the Left Social Revolutionaries and anarchists, whose influence was always tangible, and by the summer of 1918 even increased. Even in the winter of 1918, a member of the Ural Regional Committee of the Party, I. Akulov, wrote to Moscow that the Left SRs were simply "puzzling" with "their unexpected radicalism."

The Ural Bolsheviks could not and did not want to give their political rivals the opportunity to reproach them for "slipping to the right." The SRs made similar announcements. Maria Spiridonova reproached the Bolshevik Central Committee for dismissing “tsars and sub-tsars” in “Ukraine, Crimea and abroad” and raising a hand against the Romanovs “only at the insistence of the revolutionaries,” referring to the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists.

Commandant of the Ipatiev House (until 07/04/1918) A.D. Avdeev testified in his memoirs that a group of anarchists tried to pass a resolution "that the former tsar be executed immediately." Extremist-minded groups were not limited to some demands and resolutions. // Avdeev A. Nicholas II in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg // Krasnaya Nov. 1928. No. 5. S. 201.

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

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

The next day, Alexandra Feodorovna wrote in her diary:

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

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

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

In accordance with this request, the commander of the Severoural group of Soviet troops R. Berzin, together with the military commissar of the Ural military district Goloshchekin and other officials, checked the Ipatiev House. In telegrams to the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, he reported that

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

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

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

“... take the entire Royal Family under your protection, and prevent any violence against it, answering in this case, his (i.e. Berzin) own life» . // Summary of information on the Royal Family of the Department of Military Field Control under the Commissioner for the Protection of State Order and Public Peace in the Perm Province dated 11/III/1919. Published: The death of the Royal Family. Materials of the investigation in the case of the murder of the Royal Family, (August 1918 - February 1920), p. 240.

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

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

Seems to be, the Ural authorities made a fundamental decision on execution by July 4, 1918: on this day, commandant Avdeev, loyal to Nicholas II, was replaced by Chekist Ya.M. Yurovsky. There was a change in the protection of the royal family.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Historical context

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

In an attempt to provoke Soviet Russia into continuing the war with Germany, the Entente governments offered her "help," and on March 6 the British troops occupied Murmansk under the false pretext of the need to protect the Murmansk Territory from the powers of the German coalition.

The open military intervention of the Entente began. // Ilya Belous / "Red" terror arose in response to international and "white" terror

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

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

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

In mid-April 1918, German troops, violating the Brest Treaty, occupied the Crimea and liquidated Soviet power there. Part Black Sea Fleet went to Novorossiysk, where, in view of the threat of the seizure of ships by the German invaders, they were scuttled on June 18 by order Soviet government. Also, German troops landed in Finland, where they helped the Finnish bourgeoisie to eliminate the revolutionary power of the workers.

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

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

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

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

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

Soviet power and the Soviet state were under the threat of complete occupation and liquidation. The Central Committee of the Communist Party directed all its forces to the organization of defense. Volunteer units of the Red Army were being formed all over the country.

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

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

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

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

“Their war with the civil war merges into one single whole, and this is the main source of the difficulties of the present moment, when the military question, military events, has again come to the fore as the main, fundamental question of the revolution” // Lenin V.I. Full coll. soch., 5th ed., vol. 37, p. fourteen.

English trace

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

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

In his memoirs, Verkhovsky wrote that he was a member of the Union for the Revival of Russia, which had a military organization that trained personnel for anti-Soviet armed uprisings, which was financed by the "allies".

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

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

In the first part of his memoirs Some Facts and Results of the Four Years of the Civil War (1917-1921), published in Moscow in 1922, Ignatiev confirms that the organization's source of funds was "exclusively allied". the first amount from foreign sources Ignatiev received from General A.V. Gerua, to whom General M.N. Suvorov sent him. From a conversation with Gerua, he learned that the general was instructed to send officers to the Murmansk region at the disposal of the English general F. Poole, and that funds had been allocated to him for this cause. Ignatiev received a certain amount from Gerua, then received money from one agent of the French mission - 30 thousand rubles.

An espionage group was operating in Petrograd, headed by the sanitary doctor V.P. Kovalevsky. She also sent officers, mostly guards, to the English General Poole in Arkhangelsk through Vologda. The group called for the establishment of a military dictatorship in Russia and was supported by British funds. The representative of this group, the English agent Captain G. E. Chaplin, worked in Arkhangelsk under the name Thomson. December 13, 1918 Kovalevsky was shot on charges of creating a military organization associated with the British mission.

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

Dzerzhinsky was aware of the counter-revolutionary activities of the socialists, mainly the Socialist-Revolutionaries; their connections with the British services, about the flows of their financing by the Allies.

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

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

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

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

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

"Documents" was acquired at the end of 1917 by Edgar Sisson, special envoy of the US President in Russia, for 25 thousand dollars. The publisher of the publication was CPI - the Committee of Public Information under the US government. This committee was created by US President Woodrow Wilson and pursued the task of "influencing public opinion on the issues of US participation in the First World War", that is, CPI was a propaganda structure that served the US military. The committee existed from April 14, 1917 to June 30, 1919.

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

Sisson's mission went "brilliantly". He "obtained" 68 documents, some of which allegedly confirmed the existence of Lenin's connection with the Germans and even the direct dependence of the Council of People's Commissars on the Government of Kaiser Germany until the spring of 1918. More information about forged documents can be found on the website of academician Yu. K. Begunov.

Fake continues to spread in modern Russia. So, in 2005, the documentary film “Secrets of Intelligence. Revolution in a suitcase.

Murder

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

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

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

“July 16, 1918. Submitted on July 16, 1918 [at] 5:50 pm. Accepted on July 16, 1918 [at] 21:22. From Petrograd. Smolny. HP 142.28 Moscow, Kremlin, copy to Lenin.
From Yekaterinburg, the following is transmitted by direct wire: “Inform Moscow that the [trial] agreed with Filippov, due to military circumstances, cannot wait, we cannot wait. If your opinions are different, please let me know right now, out of turn. Goloshchekin, Safarov”
Get in touch with Yekaterinburg about this yourself
Zinoviev.

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

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

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

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

In this way, Yekaterinburg lied to Moscow: the whole family was killed.

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

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

Lenin sent a reply to the telegraph:

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

Here is the conclusion of the investigator of the ICR for especially important cases Solovyov:

“The investigation has reliably established that Yakov Mikhailovich (Yankel Khaimovich) Yurovsky, his deputy Grigory Petrovich Nikulin, Chekist Mikhail Alexandrovich Medvedev (Kudrin), head of the 2nd Ural squad Pyotr Zakharovich Ermakov, his assistant Stepan Petrovich Vaganov, security guard Pavel Spiridonovich Medvedev, Chekist Alexei Georgievich Kabanov. Participation in the execution of the guard Viktor Nikiforovich Netrebin, Jan Martynovich Tselms and the Red Guard Andrey Andreyevich Strekotin is not excluded. There is no reliable information about the other participants in the execution.

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

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

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

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

“In order to study the possible postmortem amputation of the head, the necessary forensic medical examinations were carried out on all sets of skeletons. According to the categorical conclusion of the forensic medical examination on the cervical vertebrae of skeletons No. 1-9 there are no traces that could indicate a post-mortem detachment of heads. At the same time, the version about a possible opening of the burial in 1919-1946 was checked. Investigative and expert data indicate that the burial was not opened until 1979, and during this opening, the remains of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were not affected. An audit by the FSB Directorate for Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk Region showed that the UFSB does not have data on a possible opening of the burial in the period from 1919 to 1978. // Resolution on the termination of the criminal case No. 18/123666-93 "On the clarification of the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919", paragraphs 7-9.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not punish the Uraloblsovet for arbitrariness. Some consider this evidence that the sanction to kill did exist. Others - that the central government did not go into conflict with the Urals, because in the conditions of the successful offensive of the Whites, the loyalty of the local Bolsheviks, and the propaganda of the Social Revolutionaries about Lenin's slipping "to the right" were more important factors than the disobedience and execution of the Romanovs. The Bolsheviks may have feared a split under difficult conditions.

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

“I returned late from the Council of People's Commissars. There were "current" cases. During the discussion of the draft on health care, Semashko's report, Sverdlov entered and sat down in his place on a chair behind Ilyich. Semashko finished. Sverdlov went up, leaned over to Ilyich and said something.
— Comrades, Sverdlov is asking for the floor for a message.
“I must say,” Sverdlov began in his usual tone, “a message has been received that in Yekaterinburg, by order of the regional Soviet, Nikolai was shot ... Nikolai wanted to run away. The Czechoslovaks advanced. The Presidium of the CEC decided to approve...
“Now let’s move on to reading the project article by article,” suggested Ilyich ... ” // Sverdlova K. T. Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov. - 4th. - M .: Young Guard, 1985.

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

The historian Ioffe believes that specific people played a fatal role in the fate of the royal family: the head of the Ural party organization and the military commissar Ural region F.I. Goloshchekin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Ural Regional Council A. Beloborodov, and a member of the collegium of the Ural Cheka, the commandant of the "special purpose house" Ya.M. Yurovsky. // Ioffe, G. Z. Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs / M .: Respublika, 1992 . pp.311-312 Holo

It should be noted that in the summer of 1918 a whole "campaign" was carried out in the Urals to exterminate the Romanovs.

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

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

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

“Based on the data of a forensic autopsy of a citizen of the city of Petrograd, doctor Fyodor Semenovich REMEZ, I conclude:
Death occurred from hemorrhage of the pleural cavity and hemorrhages under the dura due to contusion.
Bruised injuries are fatal...
1. Death b. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich occurred from a hemorrhage under the dura mater and a violation of the integrity of the substance of the brain as a result of a gunshot wound.
This damage is classified as lethal.
2. Death b. Prince John Konstantinovich's death occurred from a hemorrhage under the dura mater and in both pleural cavities. The indicated injuries could have occurred from blows with a blunt hard object or from bruises when falling from a height onto some hard object.
3. Death b. Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich's death occurred from a hemorrhage under the dura mater and in the region of the pleural sacs. The indicated injuries occurred either as a result of blows to the head and chest with some hard blunt object, or from a bruise when falling from a height. Damage is classified as lethal.
4. Death b. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna occurred from a hemorrhage under the dura mater. This injury could have occurred from a blow to the head with some blunt heavy object or from a fall from a height. The injury is classified as lethal.
5. The death of Prince Vladimir Paley occurred from hemorrhages under the dura mater and into the substance of the brain and into the pleura. These injuries could occur when falling from a height or from blows to the head and chest with a blunt hard tool. Damage is classified as lethal.
6. Death b. Prince Igor Konstantinovich occurred from a hemorrhage under the dura mater and a violation of the integrity of the cranial bones and the base of the skull and from hemorrhages into the pleural cavity and into the peritoneal cavity. These injuries occurred from blows by some blunt solid object or from a fall from a height. Damage is classified as lethal.
7. The death of the nun Varvara Yakovleva occurred from a hemorrhage under the dura mater. The damage in question could have been caused by blows with a blunt hard object or a fall from a height.
This whole act was drawn up in the most essential justice and conscience, in accordance with the rules of medical science and on duty, which we certify with our signatures ... "

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

“Both the Yekaterinburg and Alapaevsk murders are the product of the same will of the same people.” // Sokolov N. The murder of the royal family. S. 329.

Obviously: the incitement of the Ural Bolshevik elite to the murder of the royal family, and the incitement by the Socialist-Revolutionaries of such public requests in the Urals; financial and consulting support white movement; sabotage activities of the counter-revolution within Russia; attempts to stir up a conflict between Russia and Germany; the accusation of the Soviet leadership of "involvement in German intelligence", which allegedly was the reason for his unwillingness to continue the war with Germany - all links in the same chain that stretches to the British and American intelligence services. We should not forget that a similar policy of clash between Russia and Germany was supported by British and American bankers just a few years after the events we are considering, taking on the financing of the Nazi military machine and fanning the fire of a new World War. // .

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

Note: the version that the execution of the Royal Family was initiated by the Soviet leadership does not find a single scientific confirmation, as well as the myth of the “ritual murder”, which today has become the core of monarchist propaganda, through which Western intelligence incites extremism of the Black Hundreds, anti-Semitic persuasion in Russia.

“In July 1991, near Yekaterinburg, on the old Koptyakovskaya road, the bones of nine people with signs of violent death were discovered ...” This is how Natalia Rozanova’s book “Royal Passion-Bearers. A posthumous fate." - a huge long-term work that reads like a detective story. The life of the royal family in exile, murder, destruction of bodies, investigations, sensational discoveries of the remains, the author was able to reproduce with detailed accuracy thanks to archival memoirs of contemporaries and participants in the events.

The smallest details given in the book paint a stunning picture. Many facts, letters, testimonies, photographs are published for the first time. Excerpts from a grandiose study (in the usual font - the author's text by N. Rozanova, in italics - testimonies of contemporaries with the preservation of spelling and punctuation) - today in "MK".

Emperor

Recalling the period of his family's arrest in Tsarskoye Selo, Kerensky spoke of the Sovereign: ...in confinement, Nikolai was for the most part in a benevolent mood, in any case, calm. ... He was struck by complete indifference to everything external, which turned into some kind of painful automatism ... (...) And even in Yekaterinburg, where the prison regime was practically introduced for the Royal Family, Nikolai Alexandrovich, being in prison for the second year, did not lose good spirits. Here is Commandant Avdeev's opinion about him: By his appearance, one could never tell that he was under arrest, he carried himself so casually and cheerfully.

The main executor of the execution, Yurovsky, had the following opinion about Nicholas II: Anyone who saw him, not knowing who he was, no one would say that this man was the king of such a vast country for many years. And speaking of all the Romanovs imprisoned in the Ipatiev house, Yurovsky was forced to admit: If it weren’t for the hated royal family that drank so much blood from the people, they could be considered simple and unassuming people. If you look at this family in a philistine way, you could say that it is completely harmless.

Once, - recalls the commandant Avdeev of his conversation with the Sovereign, - he asked who the Bolsheviks were. that he replied that his ministers often did this without his knowledge. Then I asked him how he did not know what the ministers were doing when, on January 9, 1905, the workers were shot in front of his palace. He addressed me by my first name and patronymic and said: “You won’t believe it, maybe, but I learned this story only after the suppression of the uprising of St. Petersburg workers.”

Aleksey Kabanov was one of those Chekists who, together with Yurovsky, shot the Tsar's family, and in the 1960s, being at an advanced age, he demanded a personal pension from his “native party” for this “feat”. Recalling the time of service in the Ipatiev house, Kabanov said that the Tsar was taciturn during walks, he constantly walked only with his daughter Olga; and they walked at a brisk pace. On one of the walks, Nicholas II turned to the sentry guard to remove peat from the path along which the tsar was walking. To this the guard replied to the former emperor:

Look, what a barin! Take it away!

After that, Nikolai cleared this path himself, by scattering peat with his foot from the path.

empress

The Empress spoke to Dr. Botkin (the famous doctor voluntarily stayed with the Royal Family in exile, and died with them. - VC.): I'd rather be a scrubber, but I'll be in Russia. (...) Faith is what distinguished the views of Alexandra Feodorovna from the views of many of her contemporaries, all the letters of the Prisoner Empress breathe faith, saying that the suffering sent down to her not only did not cool and harden her soul, but also exalted: God, how homeland suffers! she wrote. - Poor motherland, they tormented inside, and the Germans crippled outside ... There will be something special to save. After all, being under the yoke of the Germans is worse than the Tatar yoke. No, the Lord will not allow such injustice and will put everything in measure. When they are completely trampled underfoot, then He will raise the Motherland. And we will continue to pray for the Motherland. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner, and save Russia... When will all this end? Whenever God wants. Be patient, dear country, and you will receive a crown of glory. (...) So spring will come and please and dry up the tears and blood shed in streams over the poor homeland. God, how I love my homeland with all its shortcomings! (…)

From the diary entries of the Empress, it is known that she rarely went for walks and almost always remained in the house due to poor health. However, acquaintance with the documents of the Soviet period allows us to make an assumption: one of the reasons for Alexandra Fedorovna's reluctance to leave the rooms once again was the insults inflicted on her by ordinary guards. In Kabanov’s memoirs, one can read the following: The former Tsarina Alexandra is of medium height, red-haired, her face is slightly covered with freckles, ugly, tightened, she didn’t go for a walk, because in the first days of her stay in the Ipatiev house, the guards asked questions: how was she cohabited with Rasputin.

A family

After the execution, Kabanov participated in the sorting of the royal things. Looking through the discovered personal records of the Grand Duchesses, he noticed: All the daughters of the king had diaries. Despite the turbulent events that took place and, especially, concerning their fate, their most ordinary moments were recorded in the diaries, how and with whom they stood in church, with whom they had breakfast, walked, and nothing more. But Olga was already 22 years old! Left his memories of the members of the Royal family and the Red Guard from the protection of the house of Ipatiev A. A. Strekotin. Here is one fragment that tells about the walks of the former Emperor with his son that he remembered: A serious, incurable illness completely paralyzed both legs of the prince, apparently even before the revolution, which is why the tsar himself always carried him for a walk in his arms. He will carefully lift him up, press him to his broad chest, and he will tightly wrap his arms around his father’s short, thick neck, lowering his thin, weak legs like whips. So the king will take him out of the house, put him in a special carriage, then roll him along the alleys. He will stop, pick up pebbles, pick flowers or twigs from trees for him - give him, and he, like a child, throws them into the bushes.

In addition to boorish antics on the part of the guards, there were bullying of a different kind. From the stories of Chemodurov (valet of the Imperial family. - VC.) it became known that when the August Persons passed by the sentries, they always deliberately clicked the bolts of their rifles, unnerving Them. The sovereign, as it were, turned to stone and did not betray his condition, - said Chemodurov, - the Empress suffered and kept praying. The princesses were nervous. When the princesses went to the restroom, a Red Army guard met them there and started “joking” conversations with Them, asking where They were going, why, etc. Then, when They passed into the latrine, the sentry, remaining outside, leaned his back against the lavatory door and remained so as long as it was used.

Laundry instructions

The memoirs of the guards and executioners of the Romanovs contain not only general impressions of the events, but also convey some valuable details from the life of the family in captivity. (...) In Avdeev's memoirs, one unknown episode from the everyday life of the royal prisoners was also preserved: For the first 2-3 weeks there were still difficulties with the arrested in terms of washing clothes. They got used to changing linen daily, and it was necessary to carefully examine all this mass of linen before handing it over to the laundresses, upon returning - the same story. There was neither time nor people for this, and it was very hard to keep track of every little thing. We agreed on this issue with comrade. Beloborodov and offered to take up this business, that is, washing clothes, by the daughters of the former. tsar together with Demidova (servant of the Empress. - VC.), and in the kitchen of the house it was convenient to fence off the laundry room. At first, Alexandra Fedorovna, as always, protested, demanded that the laundress be let through, but because the corresponding person was not found, she was categorically refused. After that, the former the Grand Duchesses contacted me to get them a printed manual for washing clothes. Of course, we had no place to get books on how to wash clothes, and we were in difficulty, but an old blacksmith from the factory of Zlokazov Comrade helped us out. Andreev - he volunteered to instruct them. And indeed, after equipping the laundry room, Comrade Andreev turned out to be a good teacher, and things got better with the laundry, only with the fact that they began to change linen less often.

“Danced my…”

Having learned about the execution of the Tsar, Russia responded to his death with cold indifference. The Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, marveling at the silent, insensitive perception by others of the news of the death of the former monarch, wrote in her memoirs: We are standing, waiting for the tram. Rain. And a cheeky boyish cock cry:

The execution of Nikolai Romanov! The execution of Nikolai Romanov! Nikolai Romanov was shot by the worker Beloborodov!

I look at people who are also waiting for the tram, and also (the same!) Hearing. Workers, ragged intellectuals, soldiers, women with children. Nothing. At least who! Whatever! They buy a newspaper, glance through it, look away again - where to? Yes, in the void.

About the reaction of the people to the message about the execution, R. Pipes in the book “Russian Revolution” noted the following: According to eyewitnesses, the inhabitants, at least the urban part of them, did not experience much grief when they announced the death of Nicholas. In some Moscow churches, a service was held for the repose of the soul of the deceased, but as for everything else, the reaction was muted. Lockhart remarks "that the message was received by the inhabitants of Moscow with surprising indifference." Bothmer had the same impression: “The reaction of the people to the death of the king is indifference. The people accepted the assassination of the king with apathetic indifference. Even decent and prudent people have already become so accustomed to various horrors and are so immersed in their own affairs and concerns that they are incapable of experiencing anything special.

Former Prime Minister Kokovtsev even noticed signs of some gloating when he was riding a tram on July 20 in Petrograd: “There was not even a hint of sympathy or pity anywhere. The message was read aloud interspersed with antics, mocking, caustic, heartless remarks... They were expressed disgustingly, such as “It's high time...” or “Yes, brother Romanov, danced his own”.

Execution

The guard Alexander Strekotin, one of the accomplices in the murder, who was proud of him and left memories of the crime in 1928, accidentally spoke about his inner, surprising for himself confusion, which seized him a few minutes before the crime was committed in the Ipatiev house: Comrade comes down to me again . Medvedev takes the revolver back from me and leaves. Leaving me, I asked him “what does it all mean” he told me “that soon there will be an execution”. After that, I became agitated and for some reason fear and pity for them, that is, for the royal family, took possession of me. Soon Medvedev, Okulov, and someone else, I don’t remember... Goosebumps run through my body, I now know that there will be execution... However, despite internal hesitation, Strekotin watched the execution to the end. The momentary movement of conscience and human compassion receded before bitterness and audacity. Finally, I hear noisy steps,” he continued in his memoirs, “and I see the whole Romanov family going downstairs ... When they were brought into the room, Okulov came back the same minute, passing me, he said “I still needed a chair,” apparently to die want on a chair. Well, what do you have to bring? Yurovsky, with a quick movement of his hands, shows the arrested how to stand, and in a quiet and calm voice says “please stand like this, in a row,” but all this happened unusually quickly. The arrested stood in two rows... The heir sat on a chair. ... Comrade. Yurovsky began to read... ...He read, something like, "Your relatives interfere with your life and go to war, and therefore your life is over", but he did not finish reading yet, as the king asked again "how, I don't understood, read again,” then Comrade Yurovsky began to read a second time, and at his last words, “Your life is over,” several voices rang out, and even the queen and eldest daughter Olga tried to cross themselves, but did not have time. With the last words "Your life is over" comrade. Yurovsky instantly pulled a revolver out of his pocket and fired at the tsar. The latter from one shot instantly fell off his feet. Simultaneously with the shots of Comrade. Yurovsky began to randomly shoot and all those present here. The arrested were already all lying on the floor, bleeding, and the heir was still sitting on a chair. For some reason, he did not fall off his chair for a long time and remained still alive. Close (point-blank. - VC.) started shooting him in the head and chest, and finally he fell off his chair. Together with them, the dog that one of the daughters brought with her was shot.

Several more shots were fired at the lying corpses (according to the comrades from the team, the shooting was heard by all the guards at the posts). Then, by order of Comrade. Yurovsky shooting was stopped. The room was thickened with smoke and smell. All interior doors were opened to let the smoke into the room. They brought a stretcher, began to remove the corpses. The king was put on the stretcher first. I helped carry it out. ... They began to lie down one of the king's daughters, but she turned out to be alive, screamed and covered her face with her hand. In addition, another of the daughters and that person, the lady, who was with the royal family, turned out to be alive. It was no longer possible to shoot at them, since the doors inside the building were all open, then Comrade. Ermakov, seeing that I was holding a rifle with a bayonet in my hands, suggested that I stab those who were still alive. I refused, then he took the rifle from my hands and began to finish them off. It was the most terrible moment of their death. They did not die for a long time, screaming, moaning, twitching. That person, the lady, died especially hard. Ermakov pierced her entire chest. He struck with a bayonet so hard that each time the bayonet stuck deep into the floor. One of the shot men apparently stood before the execution in the second row and near the corner of the room, and when they were shot, he could not fall, but simply sat down in a corner and remained dead in this position.

(ON THE 94th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SHOOTING)

94 years have passed since the execution of members of the royal family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, but the Russian press still continues to repeat the old lie about the participants historical event. The time has long come to establish the number and names of those who directly participated in the execution of members of the royal family and service personnel. Below are the main research materials taken from the chapter “Purely Russian Murder” (Two Hundred Years of a Protracted Pogrom, vol. 3, book 2, 2009). Based on a critical analysis of historical evidence - the diaries of Nicholas II and the courtiers, A. Kerensky, investigator N. Sokolov, archival materials, collected in the books of E. Radzinsky "Nicholas II", M. Kasvinov "Twenty-three steps down" and other authors - a completely new version of the circumstances of the murder of the royal family and the composition of its direct executors is offered to the attention of readers. This version refutes another bloody libel of Russian nationalists, who came up with absurd versions of the participation of Jews in the murder of the tsar and his relatives.

In one of his messages to the mythical conspirators, who allegedly prepared the rescue of members of the royal family, Nicholas II wrote: “The room is occupied by the commandant and his assistants, who are currently the internal guard. There are 13 of them armed with rifles, revolvers, bombs. Opposite our windows on the other side of the street there is a guard in a small house. It consists of 50 people. The composition of the guard is very impressive, but the inquisitive Nikolai does not mention either Latvians or Magyars, because they were not. Why bring Latvians and Magyars to Yekaterinburg, if the guards of 63 Red Army soldiers were already recruited “from the Zlokazov workers brought in by Avdeev”, that is, those who worked at the factory of the manufacturer Zlokazov. A. D. Avdeev, who for more than three months was the commandant of the house in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, was replaced by Yurovsky on July 4, 1918, that is, 12 days before the execution. What would Russian nationalists have come up with if Avdeev had turned out to be the commandant of the house on July 16? They would have turned him into the insignificant person that he really was, or they would have tried not to mention his existence at all. In fact, Avdeev was replaced by Yurovsky, because he was engaged in systematic drinking.

WHO WAS THE SENIOR IN THE IPATIEV HOUSE

On the same day, July 4, 1918, an entry appeared in the tsar’s diary: “During lunch, Beloborodov and others came and announced that the one whom we took for a doctor, Yurovsky, was appointed instead of Avdeev.” Before dealing with the number of direct killers, it is equally important to determine the name of the person who was senior boss in the House of Special Purpose. From the king’s diary entry, one can clarify who the former emperor considered senior: “For a long time they could not lay out their things, since commissar, commandant and guard officer everyone did not have time to start examining the chests. And then the inspection was similar to customs, so strict, right down to the last vial of Alex's first-aid kit. From this seemingly innocent record, it follows that the tsar quite reasonably considered commissar Ermakov to be the main power in the house, and therefore put him in the first place. Commissioner P. Ermakov, really, was the most senior military commander, to which 63 armed Red Army soldiers obeyed. His deputy was the head of the guard service M. Medvedev, who daily and in shifts placed each of the guards at the place of duty. Ermakov was previously subordinate to commandant Ageev, who was responsible for organizing the life of members of the royal family. It was Ermakov who received orders from the Ural Regional Executive Committee and, just before the execution, together with M. Medvedev, brought the Resolution of the Council on the execution to Ipatiev's house. The commandant mentioned by the tsar is Avdeev.

However, Russian nationalists created a version that commandant Yurovsky was the head of the Ipatiev house, but they never mentioned Avdeev's name in this role. Radzinsky clearly invents that the enforcement of the Decree is entrusted to the commandant of the House of Special Purpose. It is impossible to imagine that the execution of the execution was entrusted to a photographer and watchmaker by profession, who for 12 days only got acquainted with the situation in the house. Commissar Pyotr Yermakov, who was in charge of all the armed riflemen, could not transfer his powers to watchmaker Yurovsky, who happened to be in the role of commandant. Ermakov was senior in position and duties in the house when Avdeev played the role of commandant, he remained senior when this role passed to Yurovsky. It means that only Yermakov could lead the execution of the royal family and give the command, and no one else. That evening, it was Ermakov who gathered the shooters, put them in their places together with Medvedev, ordered Yurovsky to read the text of the Decree of the Ural Council and gave the command “Fire!” As soon as Yurovsky finished reading the Decree for the first time. This is exactly how Yermakov himself told the pioneers about this event and wrote in his Memoirs. The strengthening of the role of Yurovsky is the main absurd invention of Sokolov and Radzinsky, which still has the widest circulation among the vicious but illiterate Russian anti-Semites. None of the military will transfer command of the soldiers to a civilian in the presence of the immediate superior.

Historian M. Kasvinov reports that the decision of the Ural Council on the execution of the royal family was handed over to Yurovsky by two Special Representatives at half past twelve on July 16, that is, half an hour before the execution. Radzinsky calls the names of the Plenipotentiaries: this is the head of the guard of the House of Special Purpose P. Ermakov and a member of the collegium of the Ural Cheka, a former sailor, M. Mikhailov-Kudrin, chief of the guard service. Both Plenipotentiaries of the Ural Regional Council are personally involved in the execution of the royal family.

NAMES OF THE SHOOTER

The next most important issue is to clarify the number and name of the firing squad in order to exclude any fantasies on this topic. According to the version of investigator Sokolov, supported by Radzinsky, 12 people took part in the execution, including six - seven foreigners, that is, five Latvians, a Magyar and a Lutheran. Chekist Petra Ermakova, originally from the Verkh-Isetsky plant, Radzinsky calls "one of the most sinister participants in the Ipatiev Night." Ermakov himself, to whom "by agreement the tsar belonged," confirmed: "I fired a shot at him at point-blank range, he fell immediately ...". In Sverdlovsk Regional Museum revolution, an act is kept: “On December 10, 1927, they received from comrade P. Z. Ermakov a revolver 161474 of the Mauser system, with which, according to P. Z. Ermakov, the tsar was shot.” For twenty years, Yermakov spoke in detail about his role in lectures about how he personally killed the tsar. On August 3, 1932, Ermakov published his biography, in which, without undue modesty, he said: “July 16, 1918 ... I enforced the decision - the tsar himself, as well as the family, was shot by me. And personally, I myself burned the corpses.” In 1947, the same Ermakov completed "Memoirs" and, together with a biography, handed over to the Sverdlovsk party activists. Ermakov’s book contains the following phrase: “I honorably fulfilled my duty to the people and the country, took part in the execution of the entire royal family. I took Nikolai himself, Alexandra, my daughter, Alexei, because I had a Mauser, they could work. The rest had revolvers. Enough uh that confession of Ermakov, in order to forever forget all the versions of the falsifiers about the participation of the Jews. I recommend that all anti-Semites read and reread Pyotr Ermakov's Memoirs before going to bed and after waking up, and it would be useful for Solzhenitsyn and Radzinsky to memorize the text of this book as Our Father.

The son of Chekist M. Medvedev said according to his father: “The king was killed by his father. And immediately, as soon as Yurovsky repeated the last words, his father was already waiting for them and was ready and immediately fired. And he killed the king. He made his shot faster than anyone ... Only he had a Browning. According to Radzinsky, the real name of a professional revolutionary and one of the assassins of the tsar is Mikhail Medvedev was Kudrin. At first, this son stated that Yermakov killed the tsar, and a little later, his father. Here's where the truth lies.

Another “head of security” of the Ipatiev House participated in the murder of the royal family on a voluntary basis Pavel Medvedev, "a non-commissioned officer of the tsarist army, a participant in the battles during the defeat of Dukhovshchina", captured by the White Guards in Yekaterinburg, who allegedly told Sokolov that "he himself fired 2-3 bullets at the sovereign and at other persons whom they shot." P. Medvedev is already the third participant who claimed that he personally killed the tsar. In fact, P. Medvedev was not the head of security, the investigator Sokolov did not interrogate him, because even before the start of Sokolov's "work", he managed to "die" in prison. Another killer was involved in the shooting - A. Strekotin. Alexander Strekotin on the night of the execution was “appointed as a machine gunner on the lower floor. The machine gun was on the window. This post is very close to the hallway and that room.” As Strekotin himself wrote. Pavel Medvedev approached him and "silently handed me a revolver." "Why is he to me?" I asked Medvedev. “There will be an execution soon,” he told me and quickly left. Strekotin is clearly modest and hides his real participation in the execution, although he is constantly in the basement with a revolver in his hands. When the arrested were brought in, the laconic Strekotin said that he "followed them, leaving his post, they and I stopped at the door of the room." From these words it follows that A. Strekotin, in whose hands there was a revolver, also participated in the execution of the family, since watching the execution through the only door in the basement room, which was closed at the time of the execution was physically impossible.“It was no longer possible to shoot with the doors open, shots could be heard in the street,” reports A. Lavrin, quoting Strekotin. “Yermakov took a rifle with a bayonet from me and stabbed everyone who turned out to be alive.” It follows from this phrase that the shooting in the basement took place with the door closed. This is a very important detail.

“The rest of the princesses and servants went Pavel Medvedev, the head of security, and another Chekist - Alexey Kabanov and six Latvians from the Cheka.” These words belong to the dreamer Radzinsky, who mentions nameless Latvians and Magyars taken from the file of the investigator Sokolov, but for some reason forgets to give their names. Later, Radzinsky "according to legend" deciphered the name of the Hungarian - Imre Nagy, the future leader of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, although even without the Latvians and the Magyars, six volunteers had already gathered to shoot six adult family members, a cook and servants (Nikolai, Alexandra, Grand Duchesses Anastasia, Tatyana , Olga, Maria, Tsarevich Alexei, Dr. Botkin, cook Kharitonov, footman Troupe, housekeeper Demidova).

According to bibliographic data, Imre Nagy, Born in 1896, participated in the First World War as part of the Austro-Hungarian army. He fell into Russian captivity, until March 1918 he was kept in a camp near the village of Verkhneudinsk, then he joined the Red Army and fought on Lake Baikal. There are a lot of autobiographical data about Imre Nadia on the Internet, but none of them mentions participation in the murder of the royal family.

WERE THERE LATVIANS?

Unnamed Latvians are mentioned only in the investigative documents of Sokolov, who explicitly included references to them in the testimony of those he interrogated. None of the security officers who wrote their memoirs or biographies voluntarily - Ermakov, the son of M. Medvedev, G. Nikulin - do not mention the Latvians and Hungarians. There are no Latvians in the photographs of the participants in the execution, which Radzinsky cites in the book. This means that the mythical Latvians and Magyars were invented by the investigator Sokolov and later turned into invisible by Radzinsky. According to the testimony of A. Lavrin, from the words of Strekotin, Latvians are mentioned in the case, who allegedly appear at the last moment before the execution of “a group of people unknown to me, six or seven people.” After these words, Radzinsky adds: “So, the team of Latvians - executioners (it was them) is already waiting. That room is already ready, already empty, all things have already been taken out of it. Radzinsky is clearly fantasizing, because the basement was prepared in advance for execution - its walls were sheathed with boards to the full height. It is this circumstance that explains the reason why the execution after the decision of the Ural Regional Council took place four days later. Let me give you another phrase from M. Medvedev's son, which is related to the legend “about the Latvian riflemen”: “They often met in our apartment. All former regicides moved to Moscow. Of course, no one remembered the Latvians, who were not in Moscow.

ROOM SIZE AND NUMBER OF SHOOTERS

It remains to explain how all the executioners, along with the victims, were accommodated in a small room during the murder of members of the royal family. Radzinsky claims that 12 executioners were standing in the opening of an open double-leaf door in three rows. In an opening one and a half meters wide, no more than two or three armed shooters could fit. I propose to conduct an experiment and arrange 12 armed men in three or four rows to make sure that at the first shot, the third row should have shot in the back of the head standing in the first row. The Red Army men, standing in the second row, could only shoot directly, between the heads of those standing in the first row. Family members and household members were only partially located opposite the door, and most of them were in the middle of the room, away from the doorway, which is located in the photo on the left corner of the room. Therefore, it can definitely be argued that there were no more than six real killers, all of them were inside the room behind closed doors, and Radzinsky tells fairy tales about Latvians to dilute Russian shooters with them. In reality, all six assassins lined up along the wall in one row inside the room and fired at point-blank range from a distance of two and a half to three meters. This number of armed men is enough to within two or three seconds shoot 11 unarmed people.

It is necessary to dwell in particular on the size of the basement and on the fact that the only door of the room in which the execution took place was closed during the action. M. Kasvinov reports the dimensions of the basement - 6 by 5 meters. This means that along the wall, in the left corner of which there was an entrance door one and a half meters wide, only six armed people could accommodate. The size of the room does not allow indoors to accommodate more armed people and victims, and Radzinsky's statement that all twelve shooters allegedly fired through the open doors of the basement is an absurd invention of a person who does not understand what he is writing about.

Radzinsky repeatedly emphasized that the execution was carried out after a truck drove up to the House of Special Purpose, the engine of which was not turned off on purpose in order to drown out the sounds of shots, not to disturb the sleep of the inhabitants of the city. On this truck, half an hour before the execution, both Plenipotentiaries of the Ural Council arrived at Ipatiev's house. This means that the execution could only be carried out behind closed doors. To reduce the noise from the shots and increase the sound insulation of the walls, the previously mentioned plank sheathing was created. With the door closed, all the executioners, along with the victims, were only inside the room. The version of Radzinsky that 12 shooters fired through the open door is no longer valid. The mentioned participant in the execution, A. Strekotin, reported in his memoirs of 1947 about his actions, when it was discovered that several women were wounded: “It was no longer possible to shoot at them, as the doors all inside the building were opened, then tov. Ermakov, seeing that I was holding a rifle with a bayonet in my hands, suggested that I stab those who were still alive.

It follows from Kasvinov's book that the corner basement under the very ceiling had one barred narrow window, overlooking the courtyard. G. Smirnov's book "Question marks over the graves" (1996) contains a photograph of the courtyard facade of the Ipatiev house, which shows a window in the basement almost at ground level. It was impossible to see anything through this window. According to the fantasy of Sokolov and Radzinsky, the guards Kleshchev and Deryabin were at the basement window and told the investigator that they allegedly watched the execution: “Deryabin sees through the window part of the figure and mainly Yurovsky’s hand.” The same Deryabin claimed: “Latvians stood nearby and in the very door, Medvedev (Pashka) stood behind them.” This phrase was clearly composed by Sokolov, naively assuming that no one would know the location of the windows in the Ipatiev House. Even if Deryabin, who allegedly saw something through the glass, flattened himself on the ground, he still would not be able to notice anything. With the same success, he could see the leg of Goloshchekin, who had never been in the house. This means that the testimony of Deryabin and Kleshchev is an absolute lie.

THE ROLE OF YUROVSKY

From the testimonies of those interrogated by the investigators Sergeev and Sokolov and from the recollections of the surviving participants cited above, it follows that Yurovsky did not participate in the execution of members of the royal family. At the time of the execution, he was to the right of the front door, a meter from the prince and queen sitting on chairs, and also between those who fired. He held the Decree of the Ural Council in his hands and did not even have time to repeat the text at the request of Nikolai, when, on the orders of Ermakov, a volley was heard. Strekotin, who himself participated in the execution, writes: “Yurovsky stood in front of the tsar, holding his right hand in his trouser pocket, and in his left a small piece of paper ... Then he read the sentence. But did not finish the last words, as the tsar loudly asked again ... And Yurovsky read a second time. In fact, Yurovsky was not armed, his participation in the execution was not provided. “And immediately after the last words of the verdict were pronounced, shots rang out ... The Urals did not want to give the Romanovs into the hands of the counter-revolution, not only alive, but also dead,” Kasvinov noted.

Radzinsky writes that Yurovsky allegedly confessed to Medvedev-Kudrin: “Oh, you didn’t let me finish reading - you started shooting!” This phrase is key, proving that Yurovsky did not shoot and did not even try to refute Yermakov's stories, "avoided direct clashes with Yermakov", who "fired at him (Nikolai) at point-blank range, he fell immediately" - these words are taken from Radzinsky's book. After the completion of the execution, allegedly Yurovsky personally examined the corpses and found one bullet wound in the body of Nikolai. And the second could not have been, especially the third and fourth, when shot point-blank from a short distance.

COMPOSITION OF THE SHIELD GROUP

Exactly the dimensions of the basement room and the doorway, located in the left corner, quite clearly confirm that there could be no question of placing twelve executioners in the doors, which were closed. In other words, neither Latvians, nor Magyars, nor Lutheran Yurovsky took part in the execution, and only Russian shooters, led by their chief Ermakov, took part: Pyotr Ermakov, Grigory Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin, Alexei Kabanov, Pavel Medvedev and Alexander Strekotin, who barely fit along the wall inside the room. All names are taken from the books of Radzinsky and Kasvinov.

According to Kasvinov, all Chekists who fell into the hands of the Whites and had at least a distant relation to the execution of the royal family were tortured and shot by the Whites on the spot. Among them are all those who were interrogated by the investigator Sergeev - the distributing Yakimov, guards Letemin, F. Proskuryakov and Stolov(were drunk, slept all night in the bathhouse), guards Kleshchev and Deryabin, P. Samokhvalov, S. Zagoruiko, Yakimov, and others (who were at the post on the street and could not see what was happening in the house behind closed doors and through windows that did not exist in the basement) did not participate in the execution and could not tell anything. Only Letemin testified from the words of machine gunner A. Strekotin. The White Guards shot all the former guards of the house who fell into their hands, as well as two drivers - P. Samokhvalova and S. Zagoruiko only for the fact that they transported the king and accompanying persons after arriving in Yekaterinburg from the railway station to the Ipatiev House. P. Medvedev, the only witness who participated in the execution, was not among the named persons, but did not testify to the investigator Sergeev only because, according to some information, he died in prison from the plague. The very mysterious death of 31-year-old Medvedev!

Radzinsky claims that the illiterate Strekotin, who testified to investigator Sokolov, prepared his “Memoirs” for the anniversary of the execution of the royal family in 1928, which were published 62 years later in the Ogonyok magazine by Radzinsky himself. Strekotin could not write anything in 1928, because all the people who fell into the hands of the whites were shot. According to Radzinsky, this "Strekotin's oral story was the basis of Sokolov's White Guard investigation", which, in fact, was another fiction.

Sergey Lyukhanov, a Zlokazovsky worker, the driver of a truck standing in the yard during the execution, on which the corpses of the executed were transported outside the city for two days, was another of the accomplices in the murder. His strange behavior after the night of the execution and until the end of his life is proof of this. Shortly after this event, Lyukhanov's wife left her husband and subjected him to a curse. Lyukhanov constantly changed his place of residence, hiding from people. He hid so much that he was even afraid to receive his old-age pension, and he lived until he was eighty years old. This is how people who have committed a crime behave, who are afraid of exposure. Radzinsky suggests that Lyukhanov allegedly saw how the Red Army "pulled two unshot ones from the truck" when he was transporting corpses for burial to the mines, and was afraid of responsibility for their shortage. Radzinsky does not insist on this assumption, and it does not withstand any criticism. For some reason, the Red Army soldiers, who allegedly pulled two corpses from the truck, which were then not counted, were not afraid of what they had done, and the driver Lyukhanov was dying of fear until the end of his days. Most likely, this Lyukhanov either personally finished off the “corpses” that came to life in the back, or participated in the robbery of the bodies of already dead princesses. It was this kind of crime that could cause the driver to have a mortal fear that haunted him all his life. Guard Letemin it seems that he did not personally participate in the execution, but he was honored to steal a red spaniel belonging to the royal family named Joy, the prince's diary, "arks with incorruptible relics from Alexei's bed and the image that he wore ...". For the royal puppy, he paid with his life. “A lot of royal things were found in Yekaterinburg apartments. There was a black silk umbrella of the Empress, and a white linen umbrella, and her purple dress, and even a pencil - the same one with her initials, with which she made entries in her diary, and the silver rings of the princesses. Like a bloodhound, valet Chemodumov walked around the apartments. “Andrey Strekotin, as he himself said, removed jewelry from them (from those who were shot). But they were immediately taken away by Yurovsky. “When carrying out the corpses, some of our comrades began to take off various things that were with the corpses, such as: watches, rings, bracelets, cigarette cases and other things. This was reported to Comrade. Yurovsky. Tov. Yurovsky stopped us and offered to voluntarily hand over various things taken from the corpses. Who passed completely, who partly, and who didn’t pass anything at all ... ”. Yurovsky: “Under the threat of execution, everything stolen was returned (a gold watch, a cigarette case with diamonds, etc.).” Only one conclusion follows from the above phrases: as soon as the killers finished their work, they began to loot. If not for the intervention of "comrade Yurovsky", the unfortunate victims were stripped naked by Russian marauders and robbed.

BURIAL OF BODIES

When the truck with the corpses drove out of the city, an outpost of the Red Army met him. “Meanwhile ... they began to reload the corpses on the cabs. Immediately they began to empty their pockets - they had to threaten with execution here too ... ”“Yurovsky guesses a savage trick: they hope that he is tired and leaves, they want to be left alone with the corpses, they are eager to look into “special corsets,” Radzinsky obviously comes up with, as if he himself was among the Red Army. Radzinsky composes a version that, in addition to Ermakov, Yurovsky also took part in the burial of corpses. Obviously, this is another one of his fantasies.

Commissioner P. Ermakov, before the murder of members of the royal family, suggested that the Russian participants "rape the grand duchesses." When a truck with corpses passed the Verkh-Isetsky plant, they met “a whole camp - 25 horsemen, in cabs. These were workers (members of the executive committee of the council), prepared by Ermakov. The first thing they shouted was: “Why did you bring them to us inanimate.” The bloody, drunken crowd was waiting for the grand duchesses promised by Ermakov ... And now they were not allowed to participate in a just cause - to solve the girls, the child and the tsar-father. And they were sad." The prosecutor of the Kazan Court of Justice, N. Mirolyubov, in a report to the Minister of Justice of the Kolchak government, reported some names of the dissatisfied "rapists". Among them are "Military Commissar Yermakov and prominent members of the Bolshevik Party, Alexander Kostousov, Vasily Levatnykh, Nikolai Partin, Sergei Krivtsov." “Levatny said: “I myself felt the queen, and she was warm ... Now it’s not a sin to die, I felt the queen ... (in the document the last phrase is crossed out in ink. - Auth.). And they began to decide. We decided: burn the clothes, throw the corpses into a nameless mine - to the bottom. No one names Yurovsky, because he did not participate in the burial of corpses.

VLADIMIR OPENDIK JULY 14, 2012 (voted: 8, average rating: 3,00 out of 5)

Bolsheviks and the execution of the royal family

Over the past decade, the topic of the execution of the royal family has become relevant in connection with the discovery of many new facts. Documents and materials reflecting this tragic event began to be actively published, causing various comments, questions, and doubts. That is why it is important to analyze the available written sources.

Emperor Nicholas II

Perhaps the earliest historical source- these are the materials of the investigator for especially important cases of the Omsk District Court during the period of the Kolchak army in Siberia and the Urals N.A. Sokolov, who, in hot pursuit, conducted the first investigation of this crime.

Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov

He found traces of fires, fragments of bones, pieces of clothing, jewelry, and other fragments, but did not find the remains of the royal family.

According to a modern investigator, V.N. Solovyov, manipulations with the corpses of the royal family due to the sloppiness of the Red Army would not fit into any schemes of the smartest investigator for especially important cases. The subsequent advance of the Red Army shortened the search time. N.A. version Sokolov was that the corpses were dismembered and burned. Those who deny the authenticity of the royal remains rely on this version.

Another group of written sources are the memoirs of the participants in the execution of the royal family. They often contradict each other. They clearly show a desire to exaggerate the role of the authors in this atrocity. Among them - “a note by Ya.M. Yurovsky”, which was dictated by Yurovsky to the chief keeper of party secrets, Academician M.N. Pokrovsky back in 1920, when information about the investigation by N.A. Sokolov has not yet appeared in print.

Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky

In the 60s, the son of Ya.M. Yurovsky donated copies of his father's memoirs to the museum and archive so that his "feat" would not be lost in the documents.
Also preserved are the memoirs of the head of the Ural workers' squad, a member of the Bolshevik Party since 1906, an employee of the NKVD since 1920. P.Z. Ermakov, who was instructed to organize the burial, for he, as a local resident, knew the surroundings well. Ermakov reported that the corpses were burned to ashes, and the ashes were buried. His memoirs contain many factual errors, which are refuted by the testimony of other witnesses. Memories date back to 1947. It was important for the author to prove that the order of the Yekaterinburg Executive Committee: “to shoot and bury them so that no one ever found their corpses” was fulfilled, the grave does not exist.

The Bolshevik leadership also created considerable confusion by trying to cover up the traces of the crime.

Initially, it was assumed that the Romanovs would await trial in the Urals. Materials were collected in Moscow, L.D. was preparing to become a prosecutor. Trotsky. But Civil War aggravated the situation.
At the beginning of the summer of 1918, it was decided to take the royal family out of Tobolsk, since the Socialist-Revolutionaries headed the council there.

transfer of the Romanov family to Yekaterinburg Chekists

This was done on behalf of Ya.M. Sverdlov, the Extraordinary Commissar of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Myachin (aka Yakovlev, Stoyanovich).

Nicholas II with his daughters in Tobolsk

In 1905, he became famous as a member of one of the most daring gangs that robbed trains. Subsequently, all the militants - Myachin's associates - were arrested, imprisoned or shot. He manages to escape abroad with gold and jewels. Until 1917 he lived in Capri, where he was acquainted with Lunacharsky and Gorky, sponsored underground schools and printing houses of the Bolsheviks in Russia.

Myachin tried to direct royal train from Tobolsk to Omsk, but a detachment of Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks accompanying the train, learning about the change in route, blocked the road with machine guns. The Ural Council repeatedly demanded that the royal family be placed at its disposal. Myachin, with the approval of Sverdlov, was forced to yield.

Konstantin Alekseevich Myachin

Nicholas II and his family were taken to Yekaterinburg.

This fact reflects the confrontation in the Bolshevik environment over the question of who and how will decide the fate of the royal family. In any alignment of forces, one could hardly hope for a humane outcome, given the mood and track record of the people who made the decisions.
Another memoir appeared in 1956 in Germany. They belong to I.P. Meyer, who, as a captured soldier Austrian army was sent to Siberia, but the Bolsheviks released him, and he joined the Red Guard. Since Meyer knew foreign languages, then he became a confidant of the international brigade in the Urals military district and worked in the mobilization department of the Soviet Ural Directorate.

I.P. Meyer was an eyewitness to the execution of the royal family. His memoirs supplement the picture of the execution with essential details, details, including the names of the participants, their role in this atrocity, but do not resolve the contradiction that arose in previous sources.

Later, written sources began to be supplemented by material ones. So, in 1978, geologist A. Avdonin found a burial. In 1989, he and M. Kochurov, as well as screenwriter G. Ryabov, spoke about their discovery. In 1991, the ashes were removed. 19 August 1993 prosecutor's office Russian Federation initiated a criminal case in connection with the discovery of Yekaterinburg remains. The investigation began to be conducted by the prosecutor-criminalist of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation V.N. Solovyov.

In 1995 V.N. Solovyov managed to get 75 negatives in Germany, which were made in hot pursuit in the Ipatiev House by the investigator Sokolov and were considered lost forever: toys of Tsarevich Alexei, the bedroom of the Grand Duchesses, the execution room and other details. Unknown originals of N.A.’s materials were also delivered to Russia. Sokolov.

Material sources made it possible to answer the question of whether there was a burial of the royal family, and whose remains were found near Yekaterinburg. To this end, numerous Scientific research in which more than a hundred of the most authoritative Russian and foreign scientists took part.

used to identify the remains. latest methods, including a DNA examination, which was assisted by some of the current reigning persons and other genetic relatives of the Russian emperor. To eliminate any doubts in the conclusions of numerous examinations, the remains of George Alexandrovich, the brother of Nicholas II, were exhumed.

Georgy Alexandrovich Romanov

Modern achievements of science have helped to restore the picture of events, despite some discrepancies in written sources. This made it possible for the government commission to confirm the identity of the remains and adequately bury Nicholas II, the Empress, the three Grand Duchesses and courtiers.

There is another controversial issue related to the tragedy of July 1918. For a long time it was believed that the decision to execute the royal family was made in Yekaterinburg by the local authorities at their own peril and risk, and Moscow found out about this after the fait accompli. This needs to be clarified.

According to the memoirs of I.P. Meyer, on July 7, 1918, a meeting of the Revolutionary Committee was held, which was chaired by A.G. Beloborodov. He offered to send F. Goloshchekin to Moscow and get the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, since the Ural Council could not decide on its own the fate of the Romanovs.

It was also proposed to give Goloshchekin an accompanying paper outlining the position of the Ural authorities. However, the resolution of F. Goloshchekin was adopted by a majority of votes, that the Romanovs deserve death. Goloshchekin, as an old friend Ya.M. Sverdlov, was nevertheless sent to Moscow for consultations with the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov.

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov

On July 14, F. Goloshchekin, at a meeting of the revolutionary tribunal, made a report on his trip and on negotiations with Ya.M. Sverdlov about the Romanovs. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not want the tsar and his family to be taken to Moscow. The Ural Soviet and the local revolutionary headquarters must decide for themselves what to do with them. But the decision of the Ural Revolutionary Committee had already been made in advance. This means that Moscow did not object to Goloshchekin.

E.S. Radzinsky published a telegram from Yekaterinburg, in which, a few hours before the assassination of the royal family, V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, G.E. Zinoviev. G. Safarov and F. Goloshchekin, who sent this telegram, asked to be informed immediately if there were any objections. Judging by what happened next, there were no objections.

The answer to the question, but by whose decision the royal family was put to death, was also given by L.D. Trotsky in his memoirs relating to 1935: “The liberals were inclined, as it were, to the fact that the Ural executive committee, cut off from Moscow, acted independently. This is not true. The decision was made in Moscow. Trotsky reported that he proposed a public trial in order to achieve a wide propaganda effect. The progress of the process was to be broadcast throughout the country and commented on every day.

IN AND. Lenin reacted positively to this idea, but expressed doubts about its feasibility. There might not be enough time. Later, Trotsky learned from Sverdlov about the execution of the royal family. To the question: “Who decided?” Ya.M. Sverdlov replied: “We decided here. Ilyich believed that it was impossible to leave us a living banner for them, especially in the current difficult conditions. These diary entries by L.D. Trotsky were not intended for publication, did not respond "to the topic of the day", were not expressed in polemics. The degree of reliability of the presentation in them is great.

Lev Davydovich Trotsky

There is another clarification by L.D. Trotsky concerning the authorship of the idea of ​​regicide. In the drafts of the unfinished chapters of the biography of I.V. Stalin, he wrote about the meeting between Sverdlov and Stalin, where the latter spoke in favor of a death sentence for the tsar. At the same time, Trotsky did not rely on his own memories, but quoted the memoirs of the Soviet functionary Besedovsky, who had defected to the West. This data needs to be verified.

Message from Ya.M. Sverdlov at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on July 18 about the execution of the Romanov family was greeted with applause and recognition that in the current situation the Ural Regional Council did the right thing. And at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, Sverdlov announced this by the way, without causing any discussion.

Trotsky outlined the most complete ideological justification for the execution of the royal family by the Bolsheviks with elements of pathos: “In essence, the decision was not only expedient, but also necessary. The severity of the reprisals showed everyone that we would fight mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the royal family was needed not only to confuse, horrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up their own ranks, to show that there was no retreat, that complete victory or complete death lay ahead. There were probably doubts and shaking of heads in the intelligent circles of the party. But the masses of workers and soldiers did not doubt for a moment: they would not have understood or accepted any other decision. Lenin felt this very well: the ability to think and feel for the masses and with the masses was highly characteristic of him, especially at great political turns ... "

The fact of the execution of not only the king, but also his wife and children, the Bolsheviks tried to hide for some time, and even from their own. So, one of the prominent diplomats of the USSR, A.A. Ioffe, officially reported only the execution of Nicholas II. He did not know anything about the wife and children of the king and thought that they were alive. His inquiries to Moscow yielded no results, and only from an informal conversation with F.E. Dzerzhinsky, he managed to find out the truth.

“Let Ioffe know nothing,” said Vladimir Ilyich, according to Dzerzhinsky, “it will be easier for him to lie there, in Berlin ...” The text of the telegram about the execution of the royal family was intercepted by the White Guards who entered Yekaterinburg. Investigator Sokolov deciphered and published it.

The royal family from left to right: Olga, Alexandra Feodorovna, Alexei, Maria, Nicholas II, Tatyana, Anastasia

The fate of the people involved in the liquidation of the Romanovs is of interest.

F.I. Goloshchekin (Isai Goloshchekin), (1876-1941), Secretary of the Ural Regional Committee and member of the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Military Commissar of the Ural Military District, was arrested on October 15, 1939 at the direction of L.P. Beria and was shot as an enemy of the people on October 28, 1941.

A.G. Beloborodoe (1891-1938), chairman of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, participated in the twenties in the inner-party struggle on the side of L.D. Trotsky. Beloborodoe provided Trotsky with his accommodation when the latter was evicted from the Kremlin apartment. In 1927, he was expelled from the CPSU (b) for factional activities. Later, in 1930, Beloborodov was reinstated in the party as a repentant oppositionist, but this did not save him. In 1938 he was repressed.

As for the direct participant in the execution, Ya.M. Yurovsky (1878-1938), a member of the board of the regional Cheka, it is known that his daughter Rimma suffered from repression.

Yurovsky's assistant in the "House of Special Purpose" P.L. Voikov (1888-1927), People's Commissar for Supply in the government of the Urals, when appointed in 1924 as the USSR ambassador to Poland, for a long time could not receive an agrement from the Polish government, since his personality was associated with the execution of the royal family.

Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov

G.V. Chicherin gave the Polish authorities a characteristic explanation on this matter: “... Hundreds and thousands of fighters for the freedom of the Polish people, who died over the course of a century on the royal gallows and in Siberian prisons, would have reacted differently to the fact of the destruction of the Romanovs, than this could be concluded from your messages." In 1927 P.L. Voikov was killed in Poland by one of the monarchists for participating in the massacre of the royal family.

Of interest is another name in the list of persons who took part in the execution of the royal family. This is Imre Nagy. The leader of the Hungarian events of 1956 was in Russia, where in 1918 he joined the RCP (b), then served in the Special Department of the Cheka, and later collaborated with the NKVD. However, his autobiography refers to his stay not in the Urals, but in Siberia, in the region of Verkhneudinsk (Ulan-Ude).

Until March 1918, he was in the prisoner of war camp in Berezovka, in March he joined the Red Guard, and participated in the battles on Lake Baikal. In September 1918, his detachment, located on the Soviet-Mongolian border, in Troitskosavsk, was then disarmed and arrested by the Czechoslovaks in Berezovka. Then he ended up in a military town near Irkutsk. From curriculum vitae It can be seen how mobile the life of the future leader of the Hungarian Communist Party was in Russia during the execution of the royal family.

In addition, the information indicated by him in his autobiography did not always correspond to personal data. However, direct evidence of the involvement of Imre Nagy, and not his probable namesake, in the execution of the royal family, is currently not traced.

Imprisonment in the Ipatiev House

Ipatiev house

The Romanovs and their servants in the Ipatiev house

The Romanov family was placed in a "special purpose house" - the requisitioned mansion of a retired military engineer N. N. Ipatiev. Doctor E. S. Botkin, chamber footman A. E. Trupp, maid of the Empress A. S. Demidov, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived here with the Romanov family.

The house is good and clean. Four rooms were assigned to us: a corner bedroom, a dressing room, a dining room next to it with windows overlooking the garden and a view of the low part of the city, and, finally, a spacious hall with an archway without doors. We were seated as follows: Alix [Empress], Maria and I three in the bedroom, a shared bathroom, N[yuta] Demidova in the dining room, Botkin, Chemodurov and Sednev in the hall. Near the entrance is the guard officer's room. The guard was placed in two rooms near the dining room. To go to the bathroom and W.C. [water closet], you need to pass by the sentry at the door of the guardhouse. A very high plank fence was built around the house, two fathoms from the windows; there was a chain of sentries, in the garden too.

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

A. D. Avdeev was appointed commandant of the "house of special purpose".

Execution

From the memoirs of the participants in the execution, it is known that they did not know in advance how the “execution” would be carried out. Various options were offered: to stab the arrested with daggers during sleep, to throw grenades into the room with them, to shoot them. According to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the issue of the procedure for carrying out the "execution" was resolved with the participation of employees of the UraloblChK.

At 1:30 a.m. from July 16 to 17, a truck for transporting corpses arrived at Ipatiev's house, an hour and a half late. After that, doctor Botkin was awakened, who was told that everyone urgently needed to go downstairs due to the alarming situation in the city and the danger of staying on the top floor. It took about 30-40 minutes to get ready.

Evgeny Botkin, life medic Ivan Kharitonov, cook Alexei Trupp, valet Anna Demidova, maid

moved to the basement room (Alexei, who could not walk, was carried by Nicholas II in his arms). There were no chairs in the basement, then, at the request of Alexandra Feodorovna, two chairs were brought. Alexandra Fedorovna and Alexei sat on them. The rest were placed along the wall. Yurovsky brought in the firing squad and read out the verdict. Nicholas II only had time to ask: “What?” (other sources render Nikolai's last words as "Huh?" or "How, how? Re-read"). Yurovsky gave the command, indiscriminate shooting began.

The executioners did not manage to immediately kill Alexei, the daughters of Nicholas II, the maid A.S. Demidov, Dr. E.S. Botkin. There was a cry from Anastasia, the maid Demidova rose to her feet, Alexei remained alive for a long time. Some of them were shot; the survivors, according to the investigation, were finished off with a bayonet by P.Z. Ermakov.

According to Yurovsky's memoirs, the shooting was erratic: many were probably shooting from the next room, over the threshold, and the bullets ricocheted off the stone wall. At the same time, one of the shooters was slightly wounded (“A bullet from one of the shooters from behind buzzed past my head, and one, I don’t remember, either hand, palm, or touched a finger and shot through”).

According to T. Manakova, during the execution, two dogs of the royal family, who raised a howl, were also killed - Tatiana's French bulldog Ortino and Anastasia's royal spaniel Jimmy (Jammy) Anastasia. The third dog, Aleksey Nikolaevich's spaniel named Joy, was spared his life because she did not howl. The spaniel was later taken in by the guard Letemin, who because of this was identified and arrested by the whites. Subsequently, according to the story of Bishop Vasily (Rodzianko), Joy was taken to the UK by an immigrant officer and handed over to the British royal family.

after the execution

The basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was shot. GA RF

From the speech of Ya. M. Yurovsky before the old Bolsheviks in Sverdlovsk in 1934

The younger generation may not understand us. They may reproach us for killing the girls, for killing the boy-heir. But by today, girls-boys would have grown into ... what?

In order to muffle the shots, a truck was brought near the Ipatiev House, but the shots were still heard in the city. In Sokolov's materials, in particular, there are testimonies about this by two random witnesses, the peasant Buivid and the night watchman Tsetsegov.

According to Richard Pipes, immediately after this, Yurovsky harshly suppresses the attempts of the guards to plunder the jewelry they discovered, threatening to be shot. After that, he instructed P.S. Medvedev to organize the cleaning of the premises, and he left to destroy the corpses.

The exact text of the sentence pronounced by Yurovsky before the execution is unknown. In the materials of the investigator N. A. Sokolov, there are testimonies of Yakimov, the guard guard, who claimed, with reference to the guard Kleshchev who was watching this scene, that Yurovsky said: “Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they didn’t have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves.”

M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin) described this scene as follows:

Mikhail Alexandrovich Medvedev-Kudrin

- Nikolai Alexandrovich! Attempts by your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And so, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and cuts the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission to put an end to the house of the Romanovs!

In the memoirs of Yurovsky's assistant G.P. Nikulin, this episode is stated as follows: Comrade Yurovsky uttered such a phrase that:

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death."

Yurovsky himself could not remember the exact text: “... I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following, that his royal relatives and relatives both in the country and abroad tried to release him, and that the Council of Workers' Deputies decided to shoot them ".

On July 17, in the afternoon, several members of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council contacted Moscow by telegraph (the telegram is marked that it was received at 12 o’clock) and reported that Nicholas II had been shot and his family had been evacuated. The editor of the Uralsky Rabochiy, a member of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council V. Vorobyov, later claimed that they “were very uneasy when they approached the apparatus: the former tsar was shot by a decree of the Presidium of the Regional Council, and it was not known how he would react to this“ arbitrariness ” central government... The reliability of this evidence, wrote G.Z. Ioffe, cannot be verified.

Investigator N. Sokolov claimed that he had found a ciphered telegram from the chairman of the Ural Regional Executive Committee A. Beloborodov to Moscow, dated 21:00 on July 17, which allegedly was deciphered only in September 1920. It reported: “To the Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars N.P. Gorbunov: tell Sverdlov that the whole family suffered the same fate as the head. Officially, the family will die during the evacuation.” Sokolov concluded: it means that on the evening of July 17, Moscow knew about the death of the entire royal family. However, the minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on July 18 speak only of the execution of Nicholas II.

Destruction and burial of the remains

Ganinsky ravines - the burial place of the Romanovs

Yurovsky's version

According to Yurovsky's memoirs, he went to the mine at three o'clock in the morning on July 17th. Yurovsky reports that Goloshchekin must have ordered P. Z. Ermakov to carry out the burial. However, things did not go as smoothly as we would like: Ermakov brought too many people as a funeral team (“Why so many of them, I still don’t know , I heard only isolated cries - we thought that they would give us them alive, but here, it turns out, they are dead ”); truck stuck; jewels sewn into the clothes of the Grand Duchesses were discovered, some of Yermakov's people began to appropriate them. Yurovsky ordered to put guards on the truck. The bodies were loaded onto spans. On the way and near the mine planned for burial, strangers met. Yurovsky assigned people to cordon off the area, as well as to inform the village that Czechoslovaks were operating in the area and that it was forbidden to leave the village under threat of execution. In an effort to get rid of the presence of an overly large funeral team, he sends some people to the city "as unnecessary." Orders to make fires to burn clothes as possible evidence.

From the memoirs of Yurovsky (spelling preserved):

The daughters wore bodices so well made of solid diamond and other valuable stones, which were not only receptacles for valuables, but at the same time protective armor.

That is why neither the bullet nor the bayonet gave results when shooting and hitting the bayonet. By the way, no one is to blame for these death throes of theirs, except for themselves. These values ​​turned out to be only about (half) a pood. Greed was so great that Alexandra Fedorovna, by the way, was just a huge piece of round gold wire, bent in the form of a bracelet, weighing about a pound ... Those parts of the valuables that were discovered during excavations undoubtedly belonged to separately sewn things and remained after burning in the ashes of the fires.

After seizing valuables and burning clothes on fires, the corpses were thrown into the mine, but “... a new hassle. The water covered the bodies a little, what to do here? The funeral team unsuccessfully tried to bring down the mine with grenades (“bombs”), after which Yurovsky, according to him, finally came to the conclusion that the burial of the corpses had failed, since they were easy to detect and, in addition, there were witnesses that something was happening here . Leaving the guards and taking valuables, at about two o'clock in the afternoon (in the earlier version of the memoirs - "at 10-11 am") on July 17, Yurovsky went to the city. I arrived at the Ural Regional Executive Committee and reported on the situation. Goloshchekin summoned Ermakov and sent him to retrieve the corpses. Yurovsky went to the city executive committee to its chairman, S. E. Chutskaev, for advice on a place for burial. Chutskaev reported on deep abandoned mines on the Moscow Trakt. Yurovsky went to inspect these mines, but he could not get to the place right away due to a car breakdown, he had to walk. Returned on requisitioned horses. During this time, another plan appeared - to burn the corpses.

Yurovsky was not quite sure that the incineration would be successful, so the plan to bury the corpses in the mines of the Moscow Tract remained an option. In addition, he had the idea, in case of any failure, to bury the bodies in groups in different places on a clay road. Thus, there were three options for action. Yurovsky went to the commissar of supply of the Urals, Voikov, to get gasoline or kerosene, as well as sulfuric acid to disfigure faces, and shovels. Having received this, they loaded it onto carts and sent it to the location of the corpses. A truck was sent there. Yurovsky himself stayed behind to wait for Polushin, "the 'specialist' incineration," and waited for him until 11 pm, but he never arrived because, as Yurovsky later learned, he had fallen off his horse and injured his leg. At about 12 o'clock in the night, Yurovsky, not counting on the reliability of the car, went to the place where the bodies of the dead were, on horseback, but this time another horse crushed his leg, so that he could not move for an hour.

Yurovsky arrived at the scene at night. Work was underway to retrieve the bodies. Yurovsky decided to bury several corpses along the way. By dawn on July 18, the pit was almost ready, but a stranger appeared nearby. I had to abandon this plan. After waiting for the evening, we boarded the cart (the truck was waiting in a place where it should not get stuck). Then they were driving a truck, and it got stuck. Midnight was approaching, and Yurovsky decided that it was necessary to bury him somewhere here, since it was dark and no one could be a witness to the burial.

... everyone was so devilishly tired that they no longer wanted to dig a new grave, but, as always happens in such cases, two or three got down to business, then others set to work, immediately lit a fire, and while the grave was being prepared, we burned two corpses: Alexei and by mistake, instead of Alexandra Feodorovna, they apparently burned Demidov. A hole was dug at the place of burning, the bones were laid down, leveled, a large fire was lit again and all traces were hidden with ashes.

Before putting the rest of the corpses in the pit, we doused them with sulfuric acid, filled up the pit, covered it with sleepers, the truck passed empty, compacted the sleepers a little and put an end to it.

I. Rodzinsky and M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin) also left their memories of the burial of corpses (Medvedev, by his own admission, did not personally participate in the burial and retold the events from the words of Yurovsky and Rodzinsky). According to the memoirs of Rodzinsky himself:

The site where the remains of the alleged bodies of the Romanovs were found

We have now cleared this quagmire. She is deep God knows where. Well, here a part of these same darlings was decomposed and they began to fill it with sulfuric acid, they disfigured everything, and then it all turned into a quagmire. Nearby was Railway. We brought rotten sleepers, laid a pendulum through the very quagmire. They laid out these sleepers in the form of an abandoned bridge over a quagmire, and the rest at some distance they began to burn.

But now, I remember, Nikolai was burned, there was this same Botkin, I can’t tell you for sure now, now that’s a memory. How many we burned, either four, or five, or six people were burned. Who, I don't remember exactly. I do remember Nicholas. Botkin and, in my opinion, Alexei.

The execution without trial and investigation of the king, his wife, children, including minors, was another step along the path of lawlessness, neglect of human life, and terror. Many problems have been solved with the help of violence. Soviet state. The Bolsheviks who unleashed terror often became its victims themselves.
The burial of the last Russian emperor eighty years after the execution of the royal family is another indicator of the inconsistency and unpredictability of Russian history.

“Church on Blood” on the site of the Ipatiev House