Nicholas II survived his "execution"? In reality, there was no execution of the royal family.

One of the most interesting historical topics for me is high-profile murders. famous people. In almost all these murders and the investigations that were then carried out, there are many incomprehensible, contradictory facts. Often the killer was not found, or only the perpetrator, the scapegoat, was found. Main characters, the motives and circumstances of these crimes remained behind the scenes and made it possible for historians to put forward hundreds of different hypotheses, constantly interpret known evidence in a new and different way and write interesting books which I love so much.

In execution royal family in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, secrets and inconsistencies are more than years old for the regime that approved this execution and then carefully concealed its details. In this article, I will only give a few facts that prove that Nicholas II was not killed on that summer day. Although, I assure you, there are many more of them and still many professional historians do not agree with the official statement that the remains of the entire royal family were found, identified and buried.

I will very briefly remind you of the circumstances as a result of which Nicholas II and his family found themselves under the rule of the Bolsheviks and under the threat of execution. For the third year in a row, Russia was drawn into the war, the economy was in decline, popular anger was fueled by scandals related to the tricks of Rasputin and German origin the emperor's wife. Unrest begins in Petrograd.

Nicholas II at that time was going to Tsarskoe Selo, because of the riots, he was forced to make a detour through the Dno station and Pskov. It is in Pskov that the tsar receives telegrams with requests from the commanders-in-chief to abdicate and signs two manifestos that legitimize his abdication. After this turning point for the empire and for his own event, Nikolai lives for some time under the protection of the Provisional Government, then falls into the hands of the Bolsheviks and dies in the basement of the Ipatiev house in July 1918 ... Or not? Let's look at the facts.

Fact number 1. Contradictory, and in some places simply fabulous testimonies of the participants in the execution.

For example, the commandant of the Ipatiev house and the leader of the execution, Ya.M. Yurovsky, in his note, compiled for the historian Pokrovsky, claims that during the execution, the bullets ricocheted off the victims and flew around the room in a hail, as the women sewed precious stones into their corsages. How many stones are needed for the corsage to provide the same protection as cast chain mail ?!

Another alleged participant in the execution, M.A. Medvedev, recalled not only a hail of ricochets, but also stone pillars that came from nowhere in a room in the basement, as well as a powder fog, because of which the executioners almost shot each other! And this, given that smokeless powder was invented more than thirty years before the events described.

Another killer, Pyotr Ermakov, argued that he single-handedly shot all the Romanovs and their servants.

The same room in the Ipatiev house, where, according to both the Bolsheviks and the chief White Guard investigators, the family of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov was shot. It is quite possible that completely different people were shot here. More on this in future articles.

Fact number 2. There is a lot of evidence that the whole family of Nicholas II or one of its members were alive after the day of execution.

The railway conductor Samoilov, who lived in the apartment of one of the tsar's guards, Alexander Varakushev, assured the White Guards interrogating him that Nicholas II and his wife were alive on the morning of July 17. Varakushev convinced Samoilov that he saw them after the "execution" at the railway station. Samoilov himself saw only a mysterious car, the windows of which were painted over with black paint.

There are documented testimonies of Captain Malinovsky and several other witnesses who heard from the Bolsheviks themselves (in particular from Commissar Goloshchekin) that only the tsar was shot, the rest of the family was simply taken out (most likely to Perm).

The same "Anastasia", which had a striking resemblance to one of the daughters of Nicholas II. It is worth noting, however, that there were many facts indicating that she was an impostor, for example, she knew almost no Russian.

There is a lot of evidence that Anastasia, one of the Grand Duchesses, escaped execution, managed to escape from prison and ended up in Germany. For example, the children of the court physician Botkin recognized her. She knew many details from the life of the imperial family, which were later confirmed. And most importantly, an examination was carried out and the similarity of the structure of her auricle with Anastasia's shell was established (after all, photographs and even videotapes depicting this daughter of Nikolai were preserved) in 17 parameters (according to German law, only 12 is enough).

The whole world (at least the world of historians) knows about the note of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou, which was made public only after her death. In it, she claimed that she was Mary, the daughter of the last Russian emperor, and that the death of the royal family was an invention of the Bolsheviks. Nicholas II accepted certain conditions of his enemies and saved the family (although later it was separated). The story of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou is confirmed by documents from the archives of the Vatican and Germany.

Fact number 3. The king's life was more profitable than death.

On the one hand, the masses demanded the execution of the tsar and, as you know, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate much with executions. But the execution of the royal family is not an execution, it is necessary to sentence to execution, to hold a trial. Here there was a murder without trial (at least formal, indicative) and investigation. And even if the former autocrat was still killed, why didn’t they show the corpse, didn’t prove to the people that they fulfilled his desire.

On the one hand, why should the Reds leave Nicholas II alive, he can become the banner of the counter-revolution. On the other hand, the dead are also of little use. And he could, for example, be exchanged alive for freedom for the German communist Karl Liebknecht (according to one version, the Bolsheviks did just that). There is also a version that the Germans, without whom at that time the communists would have had a very hard time, needed the signature of the former tsar on the Brest Treaty and his life as a guarantee of the fulfillment of the contract. They wanted to secure themselves in case the Bolsheviks did not hold on to power.

Also, do not forget that Wilhelm II was a cousin of Nicholas. It is hard to imagine that after almost four years of war, the German Kaiser had some kind of warm feelings towards the Russian Tsar. But some researchers believe that it was the Kaiser who saved the crowned family, since he did not want the death of his relatives, even if they were yesterday's enemies.

Nicholas II with his children. I would like to believe that they all survived that terrible summer night.

I don’t know if this article could convince anyone that the last Russian emperor was not killed in July 1918. But, I hope that many had doubts about this, which prompted them to dig deeper, to consider other evidence that contradicts the official version. You can find much more facts indicating that the official version of the death of Nicholas II is false, for example, in the book of L.M. Sonin "The mystery of the death of the royal family". Most of the material for this article I took from this book.

Moscow. On July 17, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and all members of his family were shot in Yekaterinburg. Almost a hundred years later, the tragedy has been studied up and down by Russian and foreign researchers. Below are the top 10 important facts about what happened in July 1917 in the Ipatiev House.

1. The Romanov family and retinue were placed in Yekaterinburg on April 30, in the house of a retired military engineer N.N. Ipatiev. Doctor E. S. Botkin, the chamber footman A. E. Trupp, the maid of the Empress A. S. Demidov, the cook I. M. Kharitonov and the cook Leonid Sednev lived in the house with the royal family. All but the cook were killed along with the Romanovs.

2. In June 1917, Nicholas II received several letters allegedly from a white Russian officer. The anonymous author of the letters told the tsar that the supporters of the crown intended to kidnap the prisoners of the Ipatiev House and asked Nikolai to help - draw plans for the rooms, inform the sleep schedule of family members, etc. The tsar, however, in his response stated: "We do not want and cannot run away. We can only be abducted by force, as we were brought from Tobolsk by force. Therefore, do not count on any of our active help, "thus refusing to assist the" kidnappers, "but not giving up the very idea of ​​being abducted.

Subsequently, it turned out that the letters were written by the Bolsheviks in order to test the readiness of the royal family to escape. The author of the texts of the letters was P. Voikov.

3. Rumors about the assassination of Nicholas II appeared in June 1917 after the assassination of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The official version of the disappearance of Mikhail Alexandrovich was an escape; at the same time, the tsar was allegedly killed by a Red Army soldier who broke into the Ipatiev House.

4. The exact text of the verdict, which the Bolsheviks took out and read to the tsar and his family, is unknown. At about 2 am from July 16 to 17, the guards woke the doctor Botkin so that he would wake up the royal family, ordered them to get together and go down to the basement. It went to the fees, different sources, from half an hour to an hour. After the Romanovs with the servants went down, the Chekist Yankel Yurovsky informed them that they would be killed.

According to various recollections, he said:

"Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they did not have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves"(Based on the materials of the investigator N. Sokolov)

"Nikolai Alexandrovich! Attempts by your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And now, 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 of ending the Romanovs' house"(according to the memoirs of M. Medvedev (Kudrin))

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death"(according to the memoirs of Yurovsky's assistant G. Nikulin.)

Yurovsky himself later said that he did not remember the exact words he uttered. "... I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following, that his royal relatives and close ones both in the country and abroad tried to release him, and that the Soviet of Workers' Deputies decided to shoot them."

5. Emperor Nicholas, having heard the verdict, asked again:"My God, what is this?" According to other sources, he managed to say only: "What?"

6. Three Latvians refused to carry out the sentence and left the basement shortly before the Romanovs went down there. The weapons of the refuseniks were distributed among those who remained. According to the recollections of the participants themselves, 8 people participated in the execution. “In fact, there were 8 performers of us: Yurovsky, Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev, Pavel Medvedev four, Peter Ermakov five, so I’m not sure that Kabanov Ivan is six. And I don’t remember the names of two more,” G writes in his memoirs. .Nikulin.

7. It is still unknown whether the execution of the royal family was sanctioned by the highest authorities. According to the official version, the decision on the "execution" was made by the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, while the central Soviet leadership found out about what had happened only after. By the beginning of the 90s. a version was formed according to which the Ural authorities could not make such a decision without a directive from the Kremlin and agreed to take responsibility for the unauthorized execution in order to provide the central government with a political alibi.

The fact that the Ural Regional Council was not a judicial or other body that had the authority to pass sentence, the execution of the Romanovs for a long time was considered not as political repression, but as a murder, which prevented the posthumous rehabilitation of the royal family.

8. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were taken out of the city and burned, previously poured with sulfuric acid to bring the remains beyond recognition. The sanction for the release of a large amount of sulfuric acid was issued by the Commissar for the supply of the Urals P. Voikov.

9. Information about the murder of the royal family became known to society a few years later; Initially, the Soviet authorities reported that only Nicholas II was killed, Alexander Fedorovna and her children were allegedly transported to a safe place in Perm. The truth about the fate of the entire royal family was told in the article "The Last Days of the Last Tsar" by P. M. Bykov.

The Kremlin recognized the fact of the execution of all members of the royal family, when the results of the investigation of N. Sokolov became known in the West, in 1925.

10. The remains of five members of the imperial family and four of their servants were found in July 1991. not far from Yekaterinburg under the embankment of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the imperial family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In July 2007, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found.

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

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

background

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

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

Strikes and rallies, demonstrations and bread riots, famine. All this was indicative of a decline. The only way out could be the accession to the throne of a powerful and tough ruler who could take control of the country completely under his control.

Nicholas II was not like that. He was focused on building railways, churches, improving the economy and culture in society. He has made progress in these areas. But positive changes affected, basically, only the tops of society, while the majority of ordinary residents remained at the level of the Middle Ages. Splinters, wells, carts and peasant-craft everyday life.

After joining Russian Empire to the First world war only increased the discontent of the people. The execution of the royal family became the apotheosis of general insanity. Next, we will look into this crime in more detail.

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

The petty local commissars wanted to curry favor with the higher ranks. Ordinary and junior officers simply mindlessly carried out orders. Time of Troubles, which came in these turbulent years, splashed unfavorable elements to the surface.

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

Course of events

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

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

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

But in April, the Bolsheviks, after a fierce struggle for power, recall the "unfinished business." A decision is made to deliver the entire imperial family to Yekaterinburg, which at that time was a stronghold of the red movement.

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

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

The role of Yakovlev, who was instructed to transport the emperor and his family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, is interesting. He knew about the assassination attempt on the tsar being prepared by the Siberian Bolsheviks.

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

After arriving in Yekaterinburg, all prisoners were placed in the Ipatiev mansion. A photo of the royal family of the Romanovs has been preserved when they were transferred to the Yakovlev Ural Council. The place of detention among the revolutionaries was called the "house of special purpose."

Here they were kept for seventy-eight days. More details about the relationship of the convoy to the emperor and his family will be discussed later. In the meantime, it is important to focus on the fact that it was rude and boorish. They were robbed, psychologically and morally crushed, mocked in such a way that it was not noticeable outside the walls of the mansion.

Considering the results of the investigations, we will dwell in more detail on the night when the monarch with his family and retinue was shot. Now we note that the execution took place at about half past three in the morning. Life physician Botkin, on the orders of the revolutionaries, woke up all the captives and went down with them to the basement.

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

Thus, this indicates the haste and unpreparedness of the operation. The execution became lynching, to which the Bolsheviks who had lost their heads went.

Government disinformation

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

Nevertheless, immediately after the atrocity, the government launched a campaign to whitewash its reputation. Among researchers dealing with this period, the latest actions are called the "disinformation campaign."

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

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

The events of the crime were not disclosed for several years. Official recognition was given only in 1925. This decision was prompted by the publication in Western Europe of a book that outlined the results of Sokolov's investigation. At the same time, Bykov was instructed to write about the "real course of events." This pamphlet was published in Sverdlovsk in 1926.

Nevertheless, the lies of the Bolsheviks at the international level, as well as the concealment of the truth from common people shook faith in power. and its consequences, according to Lykova, caused people to distrust the government, which has not changed even in the post-Soviet era.

The fate of the rest of the Romanovs

The execution of the royal family had to be prepared. A similar "warm-up" was the liquidation of the Emperor's brother Mikhail Alexandrovich with his personal secretary.
On the night of June 12-13, 1918, they were forcibly taken out of the Perm hotel outside the city. They were shot in the forest, and their remains have not yet been discovered.

A statement was made to the international press that Grand Duke was kidnapped by intruders and disappeared without a trace. For Russia, the official version was the escape of Mikhail Alexandrovich.

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

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

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

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

Memoirs of contemporaries

Researchers have tried to reconstruct how members of the royal family were killed. The best way to deal with this is the testimonies of people who were present there.
The first such source is notes from personal diary Trotsky. He noted that the blame lies with the local authorities. He especially singled out the names of Stalin and Sverdlov as the people who made this decision. Lev Davidovich writes that in the conditions of the approach of the Czechoslovak detachments, Stalin's phrase that "the tsar cannot be handed over to the White Guards" became a death sentence.

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

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

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

Although they are often confused, the main idea remains the same. All the Bolsheviks who were next to the tsar in recent months, had claims against him. Someone in the past was in prison himself, someone has relatives. In general, they gathered a contingent of former prisoners.

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

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

What happened to the remains

The murder of the royal family took place in secret, and they planned to keep it a secret. But those responsible for the liquidation of the remains did not cope with their task.

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

According to the testimonies of the participants in the process, they were busy with the task for several days. At first, it was planned to burn the clothes, and throw the naked bodies into the mine and cover them with earth. But the crash didn't work. I had to remove the remains of the royal family and come up with another way.

It was decided to burn them or bury them along the road, which was just being built. Previously, it was planned to disfigure the bodies with sulfuric acid beyond recognition. It is clear from the protocols that two corpses were burned, and the rest were buried.

Presumably, the body of Alexei and one girl from the servant burned down.

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

The investigation showed that attempts to bury the bodies were near the mine number 7 and the 184th crossing. In particular, they were discovered near the latter in 1991.

Kirsta investigation

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

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

He began to interrogate witnesses who gave contradictory testimonies. But on their basis, Kirsta concluded that perhaps only the emperor and his heir were shot. The rest of the family was taken to Perm.

One gets the impression that this investigator set himself the goal of proving that not the entire Romanov royal family was killed. Even after he explicitly confirmed the fact of the crime, Kirsta continued to interrogate new people.

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

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

Sokolov's investigation

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

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

Sokolov again visited the mine, as well as the Ipatiev mansion. Inspection of the house was hampered by the presence of the headquarters of the Czech army there. Nevertheless, a German inscription on the wall was discovered, a quotation from Heine's verse that the monarch was killed by subjects. The words were clearly scratched out after the loss of the city by the Reds.

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

After the Bolsheviks recapture this region, Sokolov takes out all the paperwork to Harbin, and then to Western Europe. Photos of the royal family, diaries, evidence, and so on were evacuated.

He published the results of the investigation in 1924 in Paris. In 1997, Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, transferred all office work to the Russian government. In return, he was delivered the archives of his family, taken out during the Second World War.

Modern Investigation

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

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

The study of the burial was carried out by the senior prosecutor-criminalist Solovyov. On the whole, he confirmed all of Sokolov's materials. His message to Patriarch Alexei II states that "under the conditions of that time, it was impossible to completely destroy the corpses."

In addition, a consequence of the end of XX - early XXI century completely refuted the alternative versions of events, which we will discuss later.
The canonization of the royal family was carried out in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia - in 2000.

Since the Bolsheviks tried to classify this crime, rumors spread that contributed to the formation of alternative versions.

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

According to the theory of Dieterichs, the head of the emperor was cut off and alcoholized. The finds of the remains disproved this crazy idea.

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

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

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

The emperor's family was executed on one of the summer nights of July from the 16th to the 17th in the largest city in Russia - Yekaterinburg. The place was chosen appropriately: the basement of a house that was ordinary at that time, one of local residents- mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev. Not only the whole family, including children, but also close ones fell under the execution: Yevgeny Botkin, who served as a life doctor for the tsar; Alexey Trupp, known as a valet; Anna Demidova - servant; Ivan Kharitonov - at that time served the tsar in the person of a cook. Did Nicholas 2 assume execution, did he know about imminent death, could he actually save his family, did the royal family manage to escape? These questions still worry historians, but there is documentary evidence that is difficult to refute.

Nicholas 2: the execution of the royal family, the events before the massacre in stages

1. The date of the beginning of the armed uprising that affected Petrograd is subsidized on March 12 (if we take into account the old Russian calendar, then in those years it fell on February 27). It resulted in the abdication of the throne on March 15 by Tsar Nicholas 2 (as well as his son Alexei). The refusal was in favor of his brother Mikhail, who was younger than Nikolai. It happened in 1917, a year before the tragedy.

2. The abdication involved the arrest of the family, so from the end of the summer (August) 1917, the tsar and his family arrived at the Alexander Palace, which was located in Tsarskoye Selo. The provisional government set up a special commission to search for materials to bring the emperor's family to trial for high treason. Evidence or proof of this could not be found, so a decision was made in favor of the exile of Nicholas 2 with his entire family to the UK region.

3. However, plans changed rapidly: in the same August, the tsar and his relatives were sent to Tobolsk. This decision was made with the aim of holding an open trial of the prisoners, but it never took place in fact, and only in the spring (April) 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the royal wards to Moscow. Despite the fact that Lenin was at the head of the decision, fears from the side of "White Guard conspiracies" did not give the interim government peace. There was a high probability of kidnapping of the imperial family. That is why the prisoners were transported to the Urals in the city of Yekaterinburg and placed in the house of an unknown Ipatiev.

It is not known how long the family would have been in prison on the territory of Yekaterinburg, if it were not for the beginning of the uprising of the White Czechs, which led to the attack of the White Guards on the city. This only accelerated the decision to massacre the king.

Everything happened in a hurry, so it was entrusted to Yakov Yurovsky, then he acted as the commandant of the Special Purpose House. Documentary evidence (sources) of that terrible night With detailed description events. They said that the decree on the execution of the tsar and his relatives was delivered to their place of residence after midnight (at 1:30 a.m.) from July 16 to July 17, 1918. When the document was delivered, the life physician Botkin woke up the royal family. The gathering took about 40 minutes, then all the prisoners were taken to the basement. Everyone, except for their son Nikolai (Aleksey), went down to the execution room on their own. The father carried the child in his arms due to illness. At the insistence of Alexandra Fedorovna, two chairs were brought to the basement (for herself and her husband), and all the rest were placed along the wall. The commandant first started a firing squad, and then read out the death sentence.

Yurovsky would later describe in his own words the scene of the tsar's execution in detail, adding details and details. Based on his words, it happened like this ... Yurovsky insisted that the prisoners get up from their chairs and occupy the central and side walls of the basement, because. the room was very small. Tsar Nicholas was located with his back to the commandant. The verdict was read to the Yurovskys and then the order to be shot. From the first shot, Nikolai was killed to death, and then firing was heard for a long time. It took a turn of carelessness, given the ricochets from the wooden walls, which caused it to stop for a while. During this short period, it was possible to understand that not all the prisoners were dead: Botkin, already in a lying state, had to be finished off with a shot from a revolver, Alexei, Anastasia, Olga, Tatyana and Demidova were among the living. They decided to finish them off with a bayonet, but failed because of the diamond accessories, shaped like underwear(bodice). They were shot each in turn after a few minutes.

This video contains documentary photographs of the life of the royal family during the period of arrest.

The documentation testifies that the corpses of all those who were shot were loaded onto a truck and taken away at about 4 am. The remains were found only in 1991 near Yekaterinburg. It was possible to identify them: Nicholas 2, Alexandra Fedorovna, Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia, and the tsar's entourage was also found among the remains. After appropriate examinations, they were buried within the walls of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998. A little later, the remains of Maria and Alexei were found and identified: July 2007.

But today there are a lot of theories that do not agree with documentary evidence and the execution of the family of Nicholas 2. There are hypotheses about his staging, in order to export the emperor. Is there any confirmation of this?

One hypothesis is based on the fact that in those days, in the immediate vicinity of the house where the prisoners were, there was a factory. Back in 1905, its owner, fearing capture by the revolutionaries, made an underground tunnel under it. Its existence was confirmed by the failure of the bulldozers, in those years when Yeltsin decided to destroy the building.

There was a theory that Stalin and intelligence officers helped with the export of the royal family, identifying them in different provinces. This could have taken place during the offensive of the White Guards on Yekaterinburg, in the process of evacuating Soviet institutions. In those days, first of all, documents, valuables and property were saved, where the property of the Romanovs was.

The provisional government was afraid of a simulation of execution and instructed Captain Malinovsky to investigate Ganina Yama. He led it for a week, along with the officers, after which, a year later, he expressed his suspicion that all the facts that he observed during the investigation spoke of a staged execution.

In this video, suggestions are made about where and how the royal family lived after the rescue. Be sure to leave your questions and wishes to the article.

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

Commissioner A. D. Avdeev was appointed the first commandant of the House of Special Purpose.

Preparations for the shooting

According to the official Soviet version, the decision to execute was made only by the Ural Council, Moscow was notified of this only after the death of the family.

In early July 1918, the Ural military commissar Filipp Goloshchekin went to Moscow to resolve the issue of future fate royal family.

At its meeting on July 12, the Ural Council adopted a resolution on execution, as well as on methods for destroying corpses, and on July 16 transmitted a message (if the telegram was genuine) about this by direct wire to Petrograd - G. E. Zinoviev. At the end of the conversation with Yekaterinburg, Zinoviev sent a telegram to Moscow:

There is no archive source for the telegram.

Thus, the telegram was received in Moscow on July 16 at 21:22. The phrase “trial agreed with Filippov” is an encrypted decision on the execution of the Romanovs, which Goloshchekin agreed upon during his stay in the capital. However, the Uralsovet asked once again to confirm this in writing earlier. decision, referring to "military circumstances", as Yekaterinburg was expected to fall under the blows of the Czechoslovak Corps and the White Siberian Army.

Execution

On the night of July 16-17, the Romanovs and the servants went to bed, as usual, at 22:30. At 11:30 p.m., two special representatives from the Ural Council came to the mansion. They handed the decision of the executive committee to the commander of the security detachment P.Z. Ermakov and the new commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission Yakov Yurovsky, who replaced Avdeev in this position on July 4, and suggested that the execution of the sentence be started immediately.

Awakened, family members and staff were told that due to the advance of the white troops, the mansion could be under fire, and therefore, for security reasons, it was necessary to go to the basement.