Hundreds of books have been published about the tragedy of the family of Tsar Nicholas II in many languages of the world. These studies fairly objectively present the events of July 1918 in Russia. I had to read, analyze and compare some of these works. However, many mysteries, inaccuracies and even deliberate untruths remain.
Among the most reliable information are interrogation protocols and other documents of the Kolchak court investigator for especially important cases N.A. Sokolova. In July 1918, after the capture of Yekaterinburg by White troops, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Siberia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak appointed N.A. Sokolov was the leader in the case of the execution of the royal family in this city.
ON THE. Sokolov
Sokolov worked in Yekaterinburg for two years, interrogated a large number of people involved in these events, and tried to find the remains of executed members of the royal family. After the capture of Yekaterinburg by Red troops, Sokolov left Russia and in 1925 in Berlin he published the book “The Murder of the Royal Family.” He took with him all four copies of his materials.
The Central Party Archives of the CPSU Central Committee, where I worked as a leader, kept mostly original (first) copies of these materials (about a thousand pages). How they got into our archive is unknown. I read them all carefully.
For the first time, a detailed study of materials related to the circumstances of the execution of the royal family was carried out on instructions from the CPSU Central Committee in 1964.
The detailed information “on some circumstances related to the execution of the Romanov royal family” dated December 16, 1964 (CPA Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the CPSU Central Committee, fund 588 inventory 3C) documents and objectively examines all these problems.
The certificate was then written by the head of the sector of the ideological department of the CPSU Central Committee, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, an outstanding political figure in Russia. Not being able to publish the entire reference mentioned, I will cite only some passages from it.
“The archives did not reveal any official reports or resolutions preceding the execution of the Romanov royal family. There is no indisputable information about the participants in the execution. In this regard, materials published in the Soviet and foreign press, and some documents from Soviet party and state archives were studied and compared. In addition, the stories of the former assistant commandant of the Special Purpose House in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was kept, G.P., were recorded on tape. Nikulin and former member of the board of the Ural Regional Cheka I.I. Radzinsky. These are the only surviving comrades who had one way or another to do with the execution of the Romanov royal family. Based on the available documents and memories, often contradictory, it is possible to create the following picture of the execution itself and the circumstances surrounding this event. As you know, Nicholas II and members of his family were shot on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg. Documentary sources indicate that Nicholas II and his family were executed by decision of the Ural Regional Council. In protocol No. 1 of the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of July 18, 1918, we read: “Listen to: Report on the execution of Nikolai Romanov (telegram from Yekaterinburg). Resolved: Based on the discussion, the following resolution is adopted: The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee recognizes the decision of the Ural Regional Council as correct. Instruct tt. Sverdlov, Sosnovsky and Avanesov to draw up a corresponding notice for the press. Publish about the documents available in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - (diary, letters, etc.) of the former Tsar N. Romanov and instruct Comrade Sverdlov to form a special commission to analyze these papers and publish them.” The original, stored in the Central State Archive, is signed by Y.M. Sverdlov. As V.P. writes Milyutin (People's Commissar of Agriculture of the RSFSR), on the same day, July 18, 1918, a regular meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was held in the Kremlin late in the evening ( Council of People's Commissars.— Ed. ) chaired by V.I. Lenin. “During Comrade Semashko’s report, Ya.M. entered the meeting room. Sverdlov. He sat down on a chair behind Vladimir Ilyich. Semashko finished his report. Sverdlov came up, leaned towards Ilyich and said something. “Comrades, Sverdlov asks to speak for a message,” Lenin announced. “I must say,” Sverdlov began in his usual even tone, “a message has been received that in Yekaterinburg, by order of the regional Council, Nikolai was shot.” Nikolai wanted to run. The Czechoslovaks were approaching. The Presidium of the Central Election Commission decided to approve. Silence of everyone. “Let’s now move on to an article-by-article reading of the draft,” suggested Vladimir Ilyich.” (Spotlight Magazine, 1924, p. 10). This is a message from Ya.M. Sverdlov was recorded in minutes No. 159 of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of July 18, 1918: “Listen to: An extraordinary statement by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, Comrade Sverdlov, on the execution of the former Tsar Nicholas II by the verdict of the Yekaterinburg Council of Deputies and on the approval of this verdict by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee. Resolved: Take note." The original of this protocol, signed by V.I. Lenin, kept in the party archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. A few months before this, at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the issue of transferring the Romanov family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg was discussed. Ya.M. Sverdlov speaks about this on May 9, 1918: “I must tell you that the question of the position of the former tsar was raised in our Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee back in November, at the beginning of December (1917) and since then has been raised several times, but we did not accept no decision, taking into account the fact that it is necessary to first become acquainted with exactly how, in what conditions, how reliable the security is, how, in a word, the former Tsar Nikolai Romanov is kept.” At the same meeting, Sverdlov reported to the members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee that at the very beginning of April, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee heard a report from a representative of the committee of the team guarding the Tsar. “Based on this report, we came to the conclusion that it was impossible to leave Nikolai Romanov in Tobolsk any longer... The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the former Tsar Nicholas to a more reliable point. The center of the Urals, Yekaterinburg, was chosen as such a more reliable point.” Old Ural communists also say in their memoirs that the issue of transferring Nicholas II’s family was resolved with the participation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Radzinsky said that the initiative for the transfer belonged to the Ural Regional Council, and “the Center did not object” (Tape recording dated May 15, 1964). P.N. Bykov, a former member of the Ural Council, in his book “The Last Days of the Romanovs,” published in 1926 in Sverdlovsk, writes that at the beginning of March 1918, the regional military commissar I. went to Moscow specifically for this occasion. Goloshchekin (party nickname “Philip”). He was given permission to transfer the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.”
Further, in the certificate “On some circumstances related to the execution of the Romanov royal family”, terrible details of the brutal execution of the royal family are given. It talks about how the corpses were destroyed. It is said that about half a pound of diamonds and jewelry were found in the sewn-up corsets and belts of the dead. I would not like to discuss such inhumane acts in this article.
For many years, the world press has been spreading the assertion that “the true course of events and the refutation of the “falsifications of Soviet historians” are contained in Trotsky’s diary entries, which were not intended for publication, and therefore, they say, are especially frank. They were prepared for publication and published by Yu.G. Felshtinsky in the collection: “Leon Trotsky. Diaries and Letters" (Hermitage, USA, 1986).
I give an excerpt from this book.
“April 9 (1935) The White Press once very hotly debated the question of whose decision the royal family was put to death. The liberals seemed inclined to believe that the Ural executive committee, cut off from Moscow, acted independently. This is not true. The decision was made in Moscow. This happened during a critical period of the civil war, when I spent almost all my time at the front, and my memories of the affairs of the royal family are fragmentary.”
In other documents, Trotsky talks about a Politburo meeting a few weeks before the fall of Yekaterinburg, at which he defended the need for an open trial, “which was supposed to unfold the picture of the entire reign.”
“Lenin responded in the sense that it would be very good if it were feasible. But there may not be enough time. There were no debates because I did not insist on my proposal, being absorbed in other matters.”
In the next episode from the diaries, the most frequently quoted, Trotsky recalls how, after the execution, when asked about who decided the fate of the Romanovs, Sverdlov replied: “We decided here. Ilyich believed that we should not leave them a living banner, especially in the current difficult conditions.”
Nicholas II with his daughters Olga, Anastasia and Tatyana (Tobolsk, winter 1917). Photo: Wikipedia “They decided” and “Ilyich believed” can, and according to other sources, should be interpreted as the adoption of a general fundamental decision that the Romanovs cannot be left as a “living banner of counter-revolution.”
And is it so important that the direct decision to execute the Romanov family was made by the Ural Council?
I present another interesting document. This is a telegraphic request dated July 16, 1918 from Copenhagen, in which it was written: “To Lenin, member of the government. From Copenhagen. Here a rumor spread that the former king had been killed. Please provide the facts over the phone.” On the telegram, Lenin wrote in his own hand: “Copenhagen. The rumor is false, the former tsar is healthy, all rumors are lies of the capitalist press. Lenin."
We were unable to find out whether a reply telegram was sent then. But this was the very eve of that tragic day when the Tsar and his relatives were shot.
Ivan Kitaev- especially for Novaya
reference
Ivan Kitaev is a historian, candidate of historical sciences, vice-president of the International Academy of Corporate Governance. He went from a carpenter working on the construction of the Semipalatinsk test site and the Abakan-Tayshet road, from a military builder who built a uranium enrichment plant in the taiga wilderness, to an academician. Graduated from two institutes, the Academy of Social Sciences, and graduate school. He worked as secretary of the Togliatti city committee, Kuibyshev regional committee, director of the Central Party Archive, deputy director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. After 1991, he worked as head of the main department and head of a department of the Russian Ministry of Industry, and taught at the academy.
Lenin is characterized by the highest measure
About the organizers and those who ordered the murder of Nikolai Romanov’s family
In his diaries, Trotsky does not limit himself to quoting the words of Sverdlov and Lenin, but also expresses his own opinion about the execution of the royal family:
"Essentially, the decision ( about execution. — OH.) was not only expedient, but also necessary. The severity of the reprisal showed everyone that we would fight mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the royal family was needed not just to intimidate, terrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up one’s own ranks, to show that there was no retreat, that complete victory or complete destruction lay ahead. There were probably doubts and shaking of heads in the party's intellectual circles. But the masses of workers and soldiers did not doubt for a minute: they would not have understood or accepted any other decision. Lenin felt this well: the ability to think and feel for the masses and with the masses was extremely characteristic of him, especially at great political turns...”
Regarding the extreme measure characteristic of Ilyich, Lev Davidovich, of course, is the arch-right. Thus, Lenin, as is known, personally demanded that as many priests as possible be hanged, as soon as he received a signal that the masses in some localities had shown such an initiative. How can the people's power not support the initiative from below (and in reality the basest instincts of the crowd)!
As for the trial of the Tsar, which, according to Trotsky, Ilyich agreed to, but time was running out, then this trial would obviously end with Nikolai’s death sentence. Only in this case, unnecessary difficulties could arise with the royal family. And then how nice it turned out: the Ural Soviet decided - and that’s it, bribes are smooth, all power to the Soviets! Well, maybe only “in the intellectual circles of the party” there was some confusion, but it quickly passed, like with Trotsky himself. In his diaries, he cites a fragment of a conversation with Sverdlov after the Yekaterinburg execution:
“- Yes, where is the king? “It’s over,” he answered, “he was shot.” -Where is the family? - And his family is with him. - All? - I asked, apparently with a tinge of surprise. - All! - answered Sverdlov. - And what? He was waiting for my reaction. I didn't answer. - Who decided? “We decided here...”
Some historians emphasize that Sverdlov did not answer “they decided,” but “they decided,” which is supposedly important for identifying the main culprits. But at the same time they take Sverdlov’s words out of the context of his conversation with Trotsky. But here it is: what is the question, such is the answer: Trotsky asks who decided, so Sverdlov answers, “We decided here.” And then he speaks even more specifically - about the fact that Ilyich believed: “we cannot leave them a living banner.”
So in his resolution on the Danish telegram of July 16, Lenin was clearly disingenuous when speaking about the lies of the capitalist press regarding the “health” of the Tsar.
In modern terms, we can say this: if the Ural Soviet was the organizer of the murder of the royal family, then Lenin was the orderer. But in Russia, organizers rarely, and those who ordered crimes, almost never end up in the dock.
(TO 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 lies about the participants in the historical event. The time has long come to establish the number and names of those who were directly involved in the execution of members of the royal family and service personnel. Below are the main research materials taken from the chapter “Pure Russian Murder” (Two Hundred Years of 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 - to the attention readers are offered a completely new version of the circumstances of the murder of the royal family and the composition of its direct perpetrators. This version refutes yet another blood libel by Russian nationalists, who have come up with absurd versions of Jewish participation in the murder of the Tsar and his relatives.
In one of his messages to the mythical conspirators, who were allegedly preparing the release of members of the royal family, Nicholas II wrote: “The room is occupied by the commandant and his assistants, who are currently making up the internal security. There are 13 of them, armed with guns, revolvers, and 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 guards is very impressive, but the inquisitive Nikolai does not mention either Latvians or Magyars, because they weren't there. Why bring Latvians and Magyars to Yekaterinburg if the guard of 63 Red Army soldiers was already recruited “from the Zlokazov workers brought by Avdeev,” that is, those who worked at the factory of the manufacturer Zlokazov. A. D. Avdeev, who was for more than three months 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 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 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 involved in systematic drunkenness.
WHO WAS THE SENIOR OF THE IPATEV 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 instead of Avdeev, the one we took for a doctor, Yurovsky, was being appointed.” 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 tsar’s diary entry, one can clarify who the former emperor considered the eldest: “For a long time they could not arrange their things, because commissioner, commandant and guard officer everyone did not have time to begin examining the chests. And then the inspection was similar to customs, so strict, right down to the last bottle of Alex’s first aid kit.” From this seemingly innocent entry it follows that the tsar quite reasonably considered Commissar Ermakov to be the main authority in the house, and therefore put him in first place. Commissioner P. Ermakov, really, was the most senior military commander, to which 63 armed Red Army soldiers were subordinate. 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 Council Resolution on the execution to Ipatiev’s house. The commandant mentioned by the tsar is Avdeev.
However, Russian nationalists created a version that the eldest in Ipatiev’s house was Commandant Yurovsky, but they never mentioned Avdeev’s name in this role. Radzinsky is clearly inventing that the implementation of the Resolution is entrusted to the commandant of the House of Special Purpose. It is impossible to imagine that the execution was entrusted to a photographer and watchmaker by profession, who for 12 days only became familiar with the situation in the house. Commissioner Pyotr Ermakov, under whose command all the armed riflemen were, could not transfer his powers to watchmaker Yurovsky, who accidentally found himself in the role of commandant. Ermakov was senior in position and responsibilities in the house when Avdeev played the role of commandant; he remained senior when this role passed to Yurovsky. It means that only Ermakov, and no one else, could direct the execution of the royal family and give the command. That evening, it was Ermakov who gathered the riflemen, together with Medvedev, placed them in their places, ordered Yurovsky to read the text of the Urals Council Resolution and gave the command “Fire!” as soon as Yurovsky completed reading the Resolution for the first time. This is exactly what Ermakov himself told the pioneers about this event and wrote in his “Memoirs”. Strengthening the role of Yurovsky is the main nonsense invention of Sokolov and Radzinsky, which is still widely circulated among evil but illiterate Russian anti-Semites. None of the military will transfer command of soldiers to a civilian in the presence of their immediate superior.
Historian M. Kasvinov reports that the decision of the Ural Council to execute the royal family was conveyed to Yurovsky by two Special Representatives at half past twelve on July 16, that is, half an hour before the execution. Radzinsky names the names of the Commissioners: this is the head of the security of the House of Special Purpose P. Ermakov and member of the board of the Ural Cheka, former sailor, M. Mikhailov-Kudrin, chief of the guard service. Both Commissioners of the Ural Regional Council take personal part in the execution of the royal family.
NAMES OF THE SHOOTERS
The next most important issue is to clarify the number and names of the firing squad in order to eliminate any fantasies on this topic. According to the version of investigator Sokolov, supported by Radzinsky, 12 people took part in the execution, including six to seven foreigners, that is, five Latvians, Magyars and a Lutheran. Chekista Petra Ermakova, originally from the Verkh-Isetsky plant, Radzinsky calls “one of the most sinister participants in the Ipatiev Night.” Ermakov himself, who “by agreement belonged to the tsar,” confirmed: “I fired a shot at him point-blank, he fell immediately...”. The Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of the Revolution contains an act: “On December 10, 1927, they accepted 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, Ermakov 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 he said without undue modesty: “On July 16, 1918... I carried out the decree - The tsar himself, as well as his family, were shot by me. And I personally burned the corpses myself.” In 1947, the same Ermakov completed “Memoirs” and, along with his biography, submitted it to the Sverdlovsk party activist. In Ermakov’s book there is the following phrase: “I honorably fulfilled my duty to the people and the country, took part in the execution of the entire reigning family. I took Nikolai himself, Alexandra, my daughter, Alexei, because I had a Mauser and could work with it. The rest had revolvers.” Enough uh that confession of Ermakov, in order to forever forget all the falsifiers’ versions about the participation of Jews. I recommend that all anti-Semites read and re-read 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 security officer M. Medvedev stated from his father’s words: “The Tsar 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 else... Only he had a Browning. According to Radzinsky, the real name of the professional revolutionary and one of the Tsar’s killers is Mikhail Medvedev was Kudrin. At first, this son stated that Ermakov killed the king, and a little later - his father. So figure out where the truth is.
Another “chief 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 people whom they shot.” P. Medvedev is the third participant who claimed that he personally killed the Tsar. In fact, P. Medvedev was not the head of security; investigator Sokolov did not interrogate him, because even before Sokolov’s “work” began, he managed to “die” in prison. Another killer took part in the execution - A. Strekotin. On the night of the execution, Alexander Strekotin “was appointed as a machine gunner on the ground floor. The machine gun stood 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 the revolver.” “Why do I need him?” — I asked Medvedev. “There will be an execution soon,” he told me and quickly left.” Strekotin is clearly being modest and concealing 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 taciturn 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, it was physically impossible.“It was no longer possible to shoot with the doors open; shots could be heard on the street,” reports A. Lavrin, quoting Strekotin. “Ermakov took my rifle with a bayonet and killed everyone who was alive.” From this phrase it follows that the execution 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 security officer - Alexey Kabanov and six Latvians from the Cheka." These words belong to the dreamer Radzinsky, who mentions nameless Latvians and Magyars taken from the dossier of investigator Sokolov, but for some reason forgets to name them. Later, Radzinsky, “according to legend,” deciphered the name of the Hungarian - Imre Nagy, the future leader of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, although without Latvians and Magyars, six volunteers had already been recruited to shoot six adult family members, a cook and servants (Nicholas, Alexandra, Grand Duchesses Anastasia, Tatiana , Olga, Maria, Tsarevich Alexei, Doctor Botkin, cook Kharitonov, footman Trupp, 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 was captured by Russians and was kept in a camp near the village of Verkhneudinsk until March 1918, then he joined the Red Army and fought on Lake Baikal. There is a lot of autobiographical information about Imre Nadi on the Internet, but none of them mentions participation in the murder of the royal family.
WERE THERE LATTIANS?
The nameless Latvians are mentioned only in the investigative documents of Sokolov, who clearly included mentions of them in the testimony of those whom he interrogated. None of the security officers who wrote their memoirs or biographies voluntarily - Ermakov, the son of M. Medvedev, G. Nikulin - 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 investigator Sokolov and later turned invisible by Radzinsky. According to the testimony of A. Lavrin and Strekotin, the case mentions Latvians who allegedly appear at the last moment before the execution of “a group of people unknown to me, about six or seven people.” After these words, Radzinsky adds: “So, the team of Latvians - the executioners (that was them) is already waiting. That room is already ready, already empty, all the things have already been taken out of it.” Radzinsky is clearly fantasizing, because the basement was prepared in advance for execution - its walls were lined with planks to the full height. It is this circumstance that explains the reason why the execution took place four days later after the decision of the Ural Regional Council. Let me quote another phrase from M. Medvedev’s son, related to the legend “about the Latvian riflemen”: “They often met in our apartment. All former regicides, moved to Moscow". Naturally, 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 housed in a small room during the murder of members of the royal family. Radzinsky claims that 12 executioners stood in the opening of an open double 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 people in three or four rows to make sure that at the very first shot, the third row should shoot in the back of the head of those standing in the first row. The Red Army soldiers 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 in the photograph is located in the left corner of the room. Therefore, we can definitely say that there were no more than six real killers, all of them were inside the room with the doors closed, and Radzinsky tells tales about Latvians in order to dilute the Russian riflemen with them. In reality, all six killers lined up along the wall in one row inside the room and shot point-blank from a distance of two and a half to three meters. This number of armed people is quite enough to within two to three seconds shoot 11 unarmed people.
It is necessary to pay special attention to the size of the basement and 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 a larger number of armed people and victims to be accommodated in a closed room, and Radzinsky’s statement that all twelve shooters allegedly shot through the open doors of the basement is a nonsense 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 deliberately not turned off in order to muffle the sounds of shots and not disturb the sleep of the city residents. In this truck, half an hour before the execution, both representatives of the Urals Council arrived at Ipatiev’s house. This means that the execution could only be carried out behind closed doors. To reduce the noise from gunfire and enhance the sound insulation of the walls, the previously mentioned plank cladding was created. With the door closed, all the executioners, along with the victims, were only inside the room. Radzinsky's version that 12 shooters fired through an open door is no longer valid. The mentioned participant in the execution, A. Strekotin, reported in his memoirs in 1947 about his actions when it was discovered that several women were wounded: “It was no longer possible to shoot at them, since all the doors inside the building were open, then Comrade Ermakov, seeing that I was holding a rifle with a bayonet in my hands, suggested that I finish off those who were still alive.”
From Kasvinov’s book it follows that the corner basement under the very ceiling there was one narrow barred window, facing the courtyard. In G. Smirnov’s book “Question Marks over the Graves” (1996) there is a photograph of the courtyard facade of Ipatiev’s 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 stated: “The Latvians stood nearby and right in the door, behind them stood Medvedev (Pashka).” This phrase was clearly composed by Sokolov, naively assuming that no one would recognize the location of the windows in the Ipatiev House. Even if Deryabin, who supposedly saw something through the glass, had sprawled on the ground, he still would not have been able to notice anything. He might as well have seen 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 interrogated by investigators Sergeev and Sokolov and from the above memories of the surviving participants, 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 Tsarevich and Tsarina sitting on chairs, and also between those who shot. In his hands he held the Resolution of the Urals Council and did not even have time to repeat the text at Nikolai’s request, when a volley rang out on Ermakov’s order. 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 verdict. But didn't have time to finish the last words, as the king asked loudly... And Yurovsky read it a second time.” In fact, Yurovsky was not armed, his participation in the execution was not envisaged. “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 Ermakov’s stories, “avoided direct clashes with Ermakov,” who “fired a shot at him (Nikolai) at point-blank range, he fell immediately” - these words are taken from Radzinsky’s book. After the execution was completed, Yurovsky allegedly personally examined the corpses and found one bullet wound in Nikolai’s body. But there could not have been a second, much less a third and fourth, when shot at point-blank range from a short distance.
COMPOSITION OF THE SHOOTING TEAM
Exactly dimensions of the basement room and doorway, located in the left corner, they 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 boss Ermakov, took part: Pyotr Ermakov, Grigory Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin, Alexey 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’s information, all security officers who fell into the hands of the whites and were even remotely related to the execution of the royal family were tortured and shot by the whites on the spot. Among them, everyone who was interrogated by investigator Sergeev, a breeder Yakimov, security 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 on duty on the street and could not see what was happening in the house with the doors closed 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 because they transported the Tsar and his entourage after arriving in Yekaterinburg from the railway station to the Ipatiev House. Among the named persons there is no P. Medvedev, the only witness who participated in the execution, but did not testify to investigator Sergeev only because, according to some information, he died in prison from the plague. A 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 magazine “Ogonyok” 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 “oral story by Strekotin was the basis of the White Guard investigation of Sokolov,” 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 those executed were transported outside the city for two days, was another one 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. Soon after this event, Lyukhanov’s wife left her husband and cursed him. Lyukhanov constantly changed his place of residence, was 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. This is how people who have committed a crime behave and are afraid of exposure. Radzinsky suggests that Lyukhanov allegedly saw how the Red Army soldiers “pulled two half-shot men from a 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, but it does not stand up to criticism. For some reason, the Red Army soldiers, who allegedly stole two corpses from the truck, which were later missing, were not afraid of what they had done, and the driver Lyukhanov died of fear until the end of his days. Most likely, this Lyukhanov either personally finished off the “corpses” that had come 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 a mortal fear that haunted him all his life. Security Guard Letemin It seems that he did not personally participate in the execution, but he was honored to steal a red spaniel named Joy that belonged to the royal family, the prince’s diary, “the reliquaries with incorruptible relics from Alexei’s bed and the image that he wore...”. He paid with his life for the royal puppy. “Many royal things were found in Ekaterinburg apartments. They found the Empress's black silk umbrella, and a white linen umbrella, and her purple dress, and even a pencil - the same one with her initials, which she used to write in her diary, and the princesses' silver rings. The valet Chemodumov walked through the apartments like a bloodhound.” “Andrei Strekotin, as he himself said, took jewelry from them (from the executed). But Yurovsky immediately took them away.” “When removing the corpses, some of our comrades began to remove various things that were with the corpses, such as watches, rings, bracelets, cigarette cases and other things. This was reported to comrade. Yurovsky. Comrade Yurovsky stopped us and offered to voluntarily hand over various things taken from the corpses. Some passed in full, some passed partly, and some didn’t pass anything at all...” Yurovsky: “Under the threat of execution, everything stolen was returned (gold watch, cigarette case with diamonds, etc.).” From the above phrases only one conclusion follows: As soon as the killers finished their job, they began looting. If not for the intervention of “Comrade Yurovsky,” the unfortunate victims would have been stripped naked by Russian marauders and robbed.
BURYING CORDS
When the truck with the corpses left the city, it was met by an outpost of Red Army soldiers. “Meanwhile... they began to load the corpses onto carriages. Now they started emptying their pockets - and then they had to threaten with shooting...”“Yurovsky guesses a savage trick: they hope that he is tired and will leave, they want to be left alone with the corpses, they long to look into the “special corsets,” Radzinsky clearly comes up with, as if he himself were among the Red Army soldiers. Radzinsky composes a version that, in addition to Ermakov, Yurovsky also took part in the burial of the corpses. Apparently 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 carriages. These were workers (members of the executive committee of the council), which Ermakov prepared. The first thing they shouted was: “Why did you bring them to us dead?” A bloody, drunken crowd was waiting for the Grand Duchesses promised by Ermakov... And so they were not allowed to take part in a just cause - to decide the girls, the child and the Tsar-Father. And they were sad." The prosecutor of the Kazan Judicial Chamber N. Mirolyubov, in a report to the Minister of Justice of the Kolchak government, reported some of the names of the dissatisfied “rapists”. Among them are “military commissar Ermakov and prominent members of the Bolshevik party, Alexander Kostousov, Vasily Levatnykh, Nikolai Partin, Sergei Krivtsov.” “Levatny said: “I myself touched the queen, and she was warm... Now it’s not a sin to die, I touched the queen... (in the document the last phrase is crossed out in ink. - Author). And they began to decide. They decided to burn the clothes and throw the corpses into an unnamed mine - to the bottom.” Nobody mentions Yurovsky’s name because he did not participate in the burial of the corpses.
Exactly 100 years ago, on July 17, 1918, security officers shot the royal family in Yekaterinburg. The remains were found more than 50 years later. There are many rumors and myths surrounding the execution. At the request of colleagues from Meduza, journalist and associate professor at RANEPA Ksenia Luchenko, the author of many publications on this topic, answered key questions about the murder and burial of the Romanovs
How many people were shot?
The royal family and their entourage were shot in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 17, 1918. In total, 11 people were killed - Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, their four daughters - Anastasia, Olga, Maria and Tatiana, son Alexei, the family doctor Yevgeny Botkin, cook Ivan Kharitonov and two servants - valet Aloysius Troupe and maid Anna Demidova.
The execution order has not yet been found. Historians have found a telegram from Yekaterinburg, in which it is written that the tsar was shot because the enemy was approaching the city and the discovery of a White Guard conspiracy. The decision to execute was made by the local government authority Uralsovet. However, historians believe that the order was given by the party leadership, and not the Urals Council. The commandant of the Ipatiev House, Yakov Yurovsky, was appointed the main person in charge of the execution.
Is it true that some members of the royal family did not die immediately?
Yes, according to the testimony of witnesses to the execution, Tsarevich Alexei survived the machine gun fire. He was shot by Yakov Yurovsky with a revolver. Security guard Pavel Medvedev spoke about this. He wrote that Yurovsky sent him outside to check if shots were heard. When he returned, the whole room was covered in blood, and Tsarevich Alexei was still moaning.
Photo: Grand Duchess Olga and Tsarevich Alexei on the ship "Rus" on the way from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. May 1918, last known photograph Yurovsky himself wrote that it was not only Alexei who had to be “finished”, but also his three sisters, the “maid of honor” (maid Demidova) and Doctor Botkin. There is also evidence from another eyewitness, Alexander Strekotin.
“The arrested were all already lying on the floor, bleeding, and the heir was still sitting on the chair. For some reason he did not fall from his chair for a long time and remained alive.”
They say that bullets bounced off the diamonds on the princesses' belts. This is true?
Yurovsky wrote in his note that the bullets ricocheted off something and jumped around the room like hailstones. Immediately after the execution, the security officers tried to appropriate the property of the royal family, but Yurovsky threatened them with death so that they would return the stolen property. Jewels were also found in Ganina Yama, where Yurovsky’s team burned the personal belongings of the murdered (the inventory includes diamonds, platinum earrings, thirteen large pearls, and so on).
Is it true that their animals were killed along with the royal family?
Photo: Grand Duchesses Maria, Olga, Anastasia and Tatiana in Tsarskoe Selo, where they were detained. With them are Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Jemmy and French bulldog Ortino. Spring 1917 The royal children had three dogs. After the night execution, only one survived - Tsarevich Alexei’s spaniel named Joy. He was taken to England, where he died of old age in the palace of King George, cousin of Nicholas II. A year after the execution, the body of a dog was found at the bottom of a mine in Ganina Yama, which was well preserved in the cold. Her right leg was broken and her head was pierced. The English teacher of the royal children, Charles Gibbs, who helped Nikolai Sokolov in the investigation, identified her as Jemmy, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of Grand Duchess Anastasia. The third dog, Tatiana's French bulldog, was also found dead.
How were the remains of the royal family found?
After the execution, Yekaterinburg was occupied by the army of Alexander Kolchak. He ordered to begin an investigation into the murder and find the remains of the royal family. Investigator Nikolai Sokolov studied the area, found fragments of burnt clothing of members of the royal family and even described a “bridge of sleepers”, under which a burial was found several decades later, but came to the conclusion that the remains were completely destroyed in Ganina Yama.
The remains of the royal family were found only in the late 1970s. Film writer Geliy Ryabov was obsessed with the idea of finding the remains, and Vladimir Mayakovsky’s poem “Emperor” helped him in this. Thanks to the poet’s lines, Ryabov got an idea of the Tsar’s burial place, which the Bolsheviks showed to Mayakovsky. Ryabov often wrote about the exploits of the Soviet police, so he had access to classified documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Photo: Photo No. 70. An open mine at the time of its development. Ekaterinburg, spring 1919 In 1976, Ryabov came to Sverdlovsk, where he met local historian and geologist Alexander Avdonin. It is clear that even the scriptwriters favored by the ministers in those years were not allowed to openly search for the remains of the royal family. Therefore, Ryabov, Avdonin and their assistants secretly searched for the burial place for several years.
The son of Yakov Yurovsky gave Ryabov a “note” from his father, where he described not only the murder of the royal family, but also the subsequent scrambles of the security officers in attempts to hide the bodies. The description of the final burial site under a flooring of sleepers near a truck stuck on the road coincided with Mayakovsky’s “instructions” about the road. It was the old Koptyakovskaya road, and the place itself was called Porosenkov Log. Ryabov and Avdonin explored the space with probes, which they delineated by comparing maps and various documents.
In the summer of 1979, they found a burial and opened it for the first time, taking out three skulls. They realized that it would be impossible to conduct any examinations in Moscow, and keeping the skulls in their possession was dangerous, so the researchers put them in a box and returned them to the grave a year later. They kept the secret until 1989. And in 1991, the remains of nine people were officially found. Two more badly burnt bodies (by that time it was already clear that these were the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria) were found in 2007 a little further away.
Is it true that the murder of the royal family was ritual?
There is a typical anti-Semitic myth that Jews allegedly kill people for ritual purposes. And the execution of the royal family also has its own “ritual” version.
Finding themselves in exile in the 1920s, three participants in the first investigation into the murder of the royal family - investigator Nikolai Sokolov, journalist Robert Wilton and General Mikhail Diterichs - wrote books about it.
Sokolov cites an inscription he saw on the wall in the basement of the Ipatiev house where the murder took place: “Belsazar ward in selbiger Nacht Von seinen Knechten umgebracht.” This is a quote from Heinrich Heine and translates as “On this very night Belshazzar was killed by his slaves.” He also mentions that he saw there a certain “designation of four signs.” Wilton in his book concludes from this that the signs were “kabbalistic”, adds that among the members of the firing squad there were Jews (of those directly involved in the execution, only one Jew was Yakov Yurovsky, and he was baptized into Lutheranism) and comes to the version about the ritual murder of the royal family. Dieterichs also adheres to the anti-Semitic version.
Wilton also writes that during the investigation, Dieterichs assumed that the heads of the dead were severed and taken to Moscow as trophies. Most likely, this assumption was born in attempts to prove that the bodies were burned in Ganina Yama: teeth that should have remained after the burning were not found in the fire pit, therefore, there were no heads in it.
The version of ritual murder circulated in emigrant monarchist circles. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized the royal family in 1981 - almost 20 years earlier than the Russian Orthodox Church, so many of the myths that the cult of the martyr king had acquired in Europe were exported to Russia.
In 1998, the Patriarchate asked the investigation ten questions, which were fully answered by the senior prosecutor-criminologist of the Main Investigation Department of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Solovyov, who led the investigation. Question No. 9 was about the ritual nature of the murder, question No. 10 was about the cutting off of heads. Soloviev replied that in Russian legal practice there are no criteria for “ritual murder,” but “the circumstances of the death of the family indicate that the actions of those involved in the direct execution of the sentence (choice of the place of execution, team, murder weapon, burial place, manipulation of corpses) , were determined by random circumstances. People of various nationalities (Russians, Jews, Magyars, Latvians and others) took part in these actions. The so-called “Kabbalistic writings have no analogues in the world, and their writing is interpreted arbitrarily, with essential details being discarded.” All the skulls of those killed were intact and relatively intact; additional anthropological studies confirmed the presence of all cervical vertebrae and their correspondence to each of the skulls and bones of the skeleton.
Who needed the death of the royal family?
Who and why needed to shoot the tsar who had abdicated power and his relatives and servants? (Versions)
First version (New War)
A number of historians say that neither Lenin nor Sverdlov bear responsibility for the murder of the Romanovs. Allegedly, the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies in the winter, spring and summer of 1918 often made independent decisions that fundamentally contradicted the instructions of the center. They say that the Urals, in whose Council there were many left Socialist Revolutionaries, were determined to continue the war with Germany.
We may recall in direct connection with this that on July 6, 1918, the German ambassador Count Wilhelm von Mirbach was killed in Moscow. This murder is a provocation of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, which since October 1917 was part of the government coalition with the Bolsheviks and set itself the goal of violating the shameful Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with the Germans. And the execution of the Romanovs, whose safety Kaiser Wilhelm demanded, finally buried the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Having learned that the Romanovs were shot, Lenin and Sverdlov officially approved what happened, and none of the organizers or participants in the massacre were punished. A formal request about a possible execution, which was sent by the Urals to the Kremlin (such a telegram dated July 16, 1918 actually exists), supposedly did not even have time to reach Lenin before the planned action took place. Be that as it may, no response telegram arrived, they did not wait for it, and the massacre was carried out without the direct sanction of the government. Based on the results of a long investigation, the senior investigator for particularly important cases, Vladimir Solovyov, confirmed this version in his interview in 2009-2010. Moreover, Soloviev argued that Lenin was generally against the execution of the Romanovs.
So, one option: the execution of the royal family was carried out in the interests of the left Socialist Revolutionaries for the sake of continuing the war with the Germans.
Second version (Tsar, as a victim to secret forces?)
According to the second version, the murder of the Romanovs was ritual, sanctioned by certain “secret societies.” This is confirmed by Kabbalistic signs found on the wall in the room in which the execution took place. Although to this day no one has been able to identify the ink inscriptions on the windowsill as something that has a clearly interpretable meaning, some experts are inclined to believe that the following message is encrypted in them: “Here, on the orders of secret forces, the king was sacrificed for the destruction of the state . All nations are informed of this.”
In addition, on the southern wall of the room where the execution took place, a couplet written in German and distorted from a poem by Heinrich Heine about the murdered Babylonian king Belshazzar was found. However, who exactly and when could have made these inscriptions remains unknown today, and the “decipherment” of the supposedly Kabbalistic symbols is refuted by many historians. It is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about them, although great efforts were made to this end, in particular because the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) was particularly interested in the version of the ritual nature of the murder. However, the investigative authorities gave a negative response to the request of the Moscow Patriarchate: “Wasn’t the murder of the Romanovs ritual?” Although serious work was probably not carried out to establish the truth. In Tsarist Russia there were many “secret societies”: from occultists to freemasons.
Third version (American trace)
Another interesting idea is that this massacre was carried out on the direct orders of the United States. Not the American government, of course, but the American billionaire Jacob Schiff, with whom, according to some information, Yakov Yurovsky, a member of the board of the Ural Regional Cheka, who headed the security of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, was connected. Yurovsky lived in America for a long time and returned to Russia just before the revolution.
Jacob, or Jacob Schiff, was one of the richest men of the time, the head of the giant banking house Kuhn, Loeb and Company, and hated the tsarist government and Nikolai Romanov personally. The American was not allowed to expand his business in Russia and was very sensitive about depriving part of the Jewish population of civil rights.
Schiff enjoyed his authority and influence in the American banking and financial sector, tried to block Russia’s access to foreign loans in America, took part in financing the Japanese government during the Russo-Japanese War, and also generously financed supporters of the Bolshevik revolution (we are talking about an amount of 20-24 billion dollars in modern terms). It was thanks to Jacob Schiff's subsidies that the Bolsheviks were able to carry out the revolution and achieve victory. He who pays calls the tune. Therefore, Jacob Schiff had the opportunity to “order” the murder of the royal family from the Bolsheviks. In addition, the chief executioner Yurovsky, by a strange coincidence, considered America his second homeland.
But the Bolsheviks who came to power after the execution of the Romanovs unexpectedly refused to cooperate with Schiff. Maybe because he arranged the execution of the royal family over their heads?
Fourth version (New Herostratus)
It cannot be ruled out that the execution, carried out on the direct orders of Yakov Yurovsky, was primarily necessary for him personally. The morbidly ambitious Yurovsky, with all his desire, could not have found a better way to “inherit” in history than to personally shoot at the heart of the last Russian Tsar. And it is no coincidence that he subsequently emphasized many times his special role in the execution: “I fired the first shot and killed Nikolai on the spot... I shot at him, he fell down, shooting immediately began... I killed Nikolai on the spot with the Colt, the rest of the cartridges were the same loaded Colt clips, as well as a loaded Mauser, were used to finish off Nikolai’s daughters... Alexey remained sitting as if petrified, and I shot him...” The executioner Yurovsky so clearly and openly enjoyed remembering the execution that it becomes clear: for him the regicide became the most ambitious achievement in life .
Shot along with the Romanovs: Top: life physician E. Botkin, life cook I. Kharitonov: Bottom: room girl A. Demidov, valet Colonel A. Trupp
Fifth version (Point of no return)
Assessing the historical significance of the execution of the Romanovs, he wrote: “The execution of the Romanovs was needed not just to frighten, horrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up one’s own ranks, to show that complete victory or complete destruction lay ahead. This goal has been achieved... Senseless, monstrous cruelty has been committed, and the point of no return has been passed.”
Sixth version
American journalists A. Summers and T. Mangold in the 1970s studied a previously unknown part of the archives of the 1918-1919 investigation, found in the 1930s in America, and published the result of their investigation in 1976. According to them, N. Sokolov’s conclusions about the death of the entire Romanov family were made under pressure, which for some reasons was beneficial to declare all family members dead. They consider the investigations and conclusions of other White Army investigators to be more objective. According to their opinion, it is more likely that only the heir and the heir were shot in Yekaterinburg, and Alexandra Feodorovna and her daughters were transported to Perm. Nothing is known about the further fate of Alexandra Fedorovna and her daughters. A. Summers and T. Mangold are inclined to believe that in reality it was Grand Duchess Anastasia.
The conversation with senior investigator for particularly important cases Vladimir SOLOVIOV is conducted by Pravda political commentator Viktor KOZHEMYAKO
The tragedy of June 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, where the family of the last Russian Tsar was shot, became during the years of anti-Soviet “perestroika” and bourgeois “reforms” a reason for colossal political speculation. Yeltsin tried to use it for his own purposes. They remember it with every new outbreak of anti-communist hysteria. And if someone again and again shouts about the demolition of Lenin’s Mausoleum, then, of course, the Yekaterinburg events are put forward as one of the main points of accusation against the Bolshevik leader.
This accusation has become so common that it has become firmly entrenched in the minds of many. Moreover, for example, Zhirinovsky long ago built a psychological scheme, which to some may seem simply irrefutable. Why! Lenin’s elder brother was hanged for participating in an assassination attempt on the life of Nicholas II’s father, and the “bloodthirsty Ulyanov” took revenge for this by killing not only the tsar himself, but also his wife and children.
All this is repeated, repeated, repeated in different variations. Let's say, I watch on the Rossiya TV channel a very recent release of the so-called “Historical Chronicles” of Svanidze - and again: “Lenin killed Nikolai and his family.”
Let me introduce: Vladimir Nikolaevich Solovyov, senior investigator for particularly important cases of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. He has been involved in the criminal case of the murder of Nicholas II and his family since 1993, when it was initiated in connection with a burial site with the remains of nine people found near Yekaterinburg. An identification was required, and for this - a variety of expert work, in which the investigator involved scientists and other qualified specialists, including foreign ones.
The rest is known. Some agreed with the expert conclusions, others did not, but in 1998 a solemn funeral of these remains took place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg as the remains of the royal family.
Then the criminal case was dropped, and resumed again in 2007: not far from that burial, local search engines found fragments of two more people, presumably the son and daughter of Nicholas II. And again, the investigation into this case with the participation of many experts, completed by a resolution of January 15, 2009, was led by Vladimir Nikolaevich Solovyov.
The details of his investigations are a huge topic. But today we will not talk about her. I have already noted that over a long period of this painstaking work, which absorbed him entirely, Vladimir Nikolaevich became a unique expert on all the circumstances of the story that happened more than 90 years ago. He studied a lot of documents, memoirs, eyewitness accounts and materials from various historical studies conducted over the years.
So, one of the conclusions that he made for himself is the following: Lenin was not involved in the execution of the royal family.
In order to more fully present the investigator’s argument (I emphasize: in this case, he has no political involvement or interest!), I bring to the readers’ attention the text of my conversation with him. The conversation turned out to be quite lengthy, and then I had to return to it on all sorts of details, so I am publishing the entry in abbreviation.
“I have reason to say this”
Vladimir Nikolaevich, I completely accidentally learned about your conclusion regarding Lenin’s position in the matter of the royal family. Have you come to the decision that the execution was carried out not only not on his initiative, but also without his consent?
I have reasons to say this.
What are they based on?
First of all, on the reality of the relationship that existed then between the center and the provinces, that is, between the authorities in Moscow and locally. Not everything in these relations had stabilized by that time, and the instructions from the center did not always work clearly. After all, Soviet power was just being established. In general, in order to understand what happened as it happened, one must imagine the complexity of the situation in its historical concreteness. And now everything is extremely simplified.
Give an example of the complexity you mean.
Please. I don’t know if you know, but the absolute majority, I’m sure, don’t know that at this time we are talking about, the word “Leninist” among many Ural Bolsheviks, including the local leadership, was almost a dirty word.
Why?
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was the reason. Lenin is the Brest-Litovsk peace, that is, a compromise. And radicals are against compromise. They are not at all for the beginning of peaceful construction, but for the expansion of the revolutionary fire. Because of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, remember, Lenin had a sharp clash even with Dzerzhinsky. Lenin, it turns out, in the eyes of many is now some kind of opportunist-conciliator.
It's clear. It is not for nothing that Lenin wrote his famous work “The Infantile Disease of “Leftism” in Communism.”
So, the leadership of the Ural and Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks was thoroughly captured by this very “leftism”. And Lenin at that moment was not an absolute authority for them. Moreover, revolutionaries with great experience worked here, mentally considering themselves (at least some of them) as leaders, perhaps no less or on an equal footing with Lenin. And certainly - much more revolutionary!
Did this determine their attitude to the problem of the royal family?
Certainly. They were eager to solve it in their own spirit - radically. But for Lenin this turned out to be unacceptable. Moreover, I came to the conclusion that the execution was even a kind of provocation against Lenin and the line that he pursued.
Imagine, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, that is, the same radicals, killed the German Ambassador Mirbach in early July 1918. This is a provocation to cause an aggravation of relations with Germany, even to the point of war. And there was already a threat that German military units would be sent to Moscow. Immediately - the Left Socialist Revolutionary rebellion. In short, everything is balancing on the edge. Lenin is making great efforts to somehow smooth out the imposed Soviet-German conflict and avoid a clash. So why did he need to shoot the German princesses at this moment, such as the daughters of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna were considered to be?
No, Lenin, even for such purely pragmatic, political reasons, could not want this and, I am convinced, did not strive for this. On the contrary, what was done was actually directed against him.
Was Lenin in favor of trying the former Tsar?
Yes. It was assumed that such a trial would take place, and Trotsky wanted to act as a prosecutor. However, Trotsky, who certainly considered himself no less, but more than Lenin, at this time began to play out his game...
The Provisional Government was literally bombarded with telegrams and letters demanding that the Tsar and his family be “expendited” immediately and without any trial.
Since we started talking about the trial, I remembered that the Provisional Government was also going to arrange a trial of Nicholas II.
Above him and above the former empress. Soon after the February Revolution, the Extraordinary Investigative Commission (ESI) was established to investigate the crimes of the royal family and senior officials of Russia. It was about high treason and much more.
I read about the work of this commission from Alexander Blok, who, it seems, actively participated in it... But, as far as I know, at the same time there were negotiations on the expulsion of the royal family abroad?
Exactly.
Who led them and with whom?
Yes, the same people who led the preparation of the trial, at the very height of this preparation, negotiated the sending of the king and his family to England. I note that during the development of the act of abdication, the issue of the Tsar’s possible departure from Russia was not officially considered. But a note from the deposed emperor dated March 4, 1917, handed over to the chairman of the Provisional Government, Prince Lvov, has been preserved. Judging by it and the resolution of March 6, Nikolai’s request to travel abroad was supported.
Did you mean England right away?
Apparently, right away.
And why?
The Russian emperor and the English king had the warmest, even friendly personal relations of all foreign monarchs. In England, Nikolai, who in Russia held the rather modest military rank of colonel, was awarded the highest ranks - field marshal of the army and admiral of the British fleet. The same ones that King George himself wore. By the way, an interesting detail: Nikolai and Georg were very similar in appearance. Sometimes they changed shape and played pranks on those around them.
In short, it would seem that Great Britain is the best option for the departure of the crowned family. Somewhere around March 7, Foreign Minister Miliukov met with the British Ambassador George Buchanan and asked to find out the position of the British government on this issue. And already on March 10, the ambassador announced that the government of his country was positive about the idea of moving the royal family to Great Britain.
Kerensky, to whom the Provisional Government entrusted all the problems associated with this family, began closely preparing to send her abroad.
Why didn't this happen?
The immediate departure was prevented by the work of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, which, despite all these behind-the-scenes negotiations, still continued. But another serious problem arose when they practically wanted to begin implementing this plan: would it be possible to ensure safe passage of royalty to the port of Romanov, that is, to Murmansk?
The fact is that rumors about the tsar’s impending departure abroad somehow spread beyond a narrow circle and caused a storm of indignation in many public organizations. This is what you cannot be distracted from when considering the events of that time! I spoke about the radical wing of the Bolshevik Party. But in 1917 and later, the mood among the mass of the Russian population was extremely radical. Including in relation to the “royal question”. Consider the following: a huge number of local organizations representing various parties (the so-called democratic ones, which must be especially emphasized!) literally bombarded the Provisional Government with telegrams and letters with a categorical demand to immediately and without any trial “dispose of” the Tsar and his family.
Yes, this is really serious. Nowadays, few people imagine the real mood of a large part of society at that time. They were told that the absolute majority in Russia were convinced monarchists and only a “merciless gang of Bolshevik-Leninists” sought to kill the Tsar.
There were, perhaps, much fewer monarchists in Russia then than there are now. All democrats! Kolchak is a democrat, Krasnov is a democrat, Denikin is too... That’s why the February Revolution happened so easily. Almost everyone renounced the tsar, even the church.
About a year ago, we in Pravda published statements by church leaders published after February: sheer delight at the overthrow of the autocracy!
I can add a very significant fact. When the question arises about the royal family moving to Tobolsk, not a single clergyman will want to go with her. Including the Tsarskoye Selo priest and confessor of the family, Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev. He will refuse to go, like other clergy. Therefore, in Tobolsk, the local priest, coincidentally also Vasiliev, Father Alexei, will have to look after the Tsar and his family...
But let's return to the question of why the crowned family was not transported to England.
But because England reconsidered its original decision. So to speak, I “came to my senses.” Exactly a month later, on April 10, 1917, King George V instructs his secretary, Lord Stanfordham, to propose to the Prime Minister, “in view of the obvious negative attitude of the public, to inform the Russian Government that His Majesty’s Government is forced to withdraw its earlier consent.”
What did you mean by “negative public attitude”? Which public are we talking about - English or Russian?
Presumably, both. The general mood of the British was not at all so favorable towards Russia as to save its autocrat. And I have already spoken about the mood in Russia itself, which the English king, of course, was well aware of.
In a word, thinking about how to further conduct business with a country whose inhabitants for the most part are resolutely opposed to the former royal family, and also fearing that harboring this family and the Tsar himself could interfere with relations with Russia in the future, George V considered it best to refuse to his old friend at the reception.
Well, a fact that says something about the topic of “morality and politics.” In this case - English politics.
No wonder: the rulers of Great Britain have always professed extreme state egoism. So the fate of the king as such was of little concern to them.
Well, were there options for traveling to other countries?
Apparently, others were also not too eager to host the disgraced family of the former Russian emperor. Neither France, nor Denmark, nor Greece or Spain - to name the states where Nicholas II seemed to be highly valued before. Only the Germans, paradoxically, were constantly interested in the fate of the former Russian princesses and at the same time the German princesses.
The former “owner of the Russian land” was looking for a secluded place in a country torn by revolution
So, since the options for sending the Tsar abroad have disappeared, the Provisional Government is making a decision about Tobolsk?
Absolutely right.
However, why was it necessary to take this family somewhere and why did Tobolsk arise?
Nicholas II and his family, as you know, were under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo. But the proximity to the seething revolutionary Petrograd was dangerous for them, and over time the danger did not decrease, but, on the contrary, increased. Despite the thorough security, lynching was also possible. Considering the massive radical sentiments that we talked about...
That is, the king had to be hidden somewhere?
Of course. To shelter from a really threatening reprisal - not the Bolshevik, but anyone else's. Kerensky was thinking about this. Siberian Tobolsk seemed at that moment to be a suitable place, quiet, secluded.
Did members of the royal family also want to move away from the boiling capital?
They wanted it, but they imagined a completely different place to move to. Not Tobolsk, but Crimea. They were sure that they would be taken there and they could live peacefully in their palace - so to speak, at the expense of the retired king. The provisional government would have agreed to this, but by August 1917 it became absolutely clear that it did not actually govern the country, especially the outskirts. And Crimea, among these outskirts, turned out to be too hot a place. It was then that Tobolsk arose.
So, the Provisional Government decided to transport Nicholas II and his family from Tsarskoe Selo to Tobolsk. Was the move there smooth?
It was like a military operation. They prepared two trains, placing 45 close associates of the royal family, 330 soldiers and 6 officers in them. All the soldiers had distinguished themselves in battle, many were Cavaliers of St. George. And this military force was headed by Colonel Kobylinsky.
And the railway workers, having learned about the upcoming departure of the royal family, threatened to disrupt the trip until the last moment. The government was also afraid of attacks on the way, so instructions were given to pass through large stations, stopping only at small ones to replenish coal and water. Actually, that’s how it was. Sometimes they stopped in an open field so that passengers could take a walk...
The royal train left in the early morning of August 14 (28). It was still almost night. An atmosphere of the strictest secrecy has been created. The windows in the main secret carriage are tightly curtained. And on this carriage there is an inscription: “Japanese Red Cross Mission.” The train was flying the Japanese flag.
And why? What was this particular flag associated with?
For the same secrecy purposes. Disguise. Well, Japan was considered an ally of Russia at that time...
Were there any incidents during the trip? Was it not noticed?
It is interesting that they were alarmed not just anywhere, but in the “fatal city” of Yekaterinburg. Although two strange trains passed at dawn, the presence of royalty on the train became known from somewhere. And a telegram went to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee that, according to rumors, trains with the tsar and family were going to Novonikolaevsk (present-day Novosibirsk) in order to leave from there through Harbin abroad. To prevent this, telegrams were sent from Yekaterinburg to Novonikolaevsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk. Meanwhile, the king and his entire family were sleeping peacefully.
Then we quite safely reached Tyumen, and from there, transferring to the steamer "Rus", we set off along the Ture and Tobol rivers to our destination. We arrived in Tobolsk on August 19, old style (new style - September 1).
And where were they located?
In the house where the last Tobolsk governor Ordovsky-Tanaevsky lived. By this time he had already moved out; power was in the hands of representatives of the Provisional Government and the mayor of Shalabanov. They urgently prepared housing for the unusual new guests. Everything there was cleaned, painted, and the house was surrounded by a secure fence.
Big house?
Eighteen rooms, and spacious ones, so there was enough space for everyone. At the house, according to Nicholas II, there was a “so-called garden” and a “bad vegetable garden.”
Photographs of the former Tsar chopping wood are widely known. In modern terms, photographers probably saw this as a special “fun”.
Yes, Nikolai prepared firewood, sawed, chopped. First they cut down the dry pine tree in the yard, then the birch tree. And then they brought round timber, which he began to “cut up”. He needed physical activity. Later, when the Bolshevik Myachin-Yakovlev, whom we will talk about ahead, talks in an interview with Izvestia about his first meeting with the Tobolsk exile, he will note his fresh appearance, and the calluses that have appeared on his hands.
Tobolsk was not destined to remain a quiet place for long
However, as it is easy to imagine, the “secluded, quiet place” - Tobolsk - did not continue to remain so for very long?
Indeed, it is easy to imagine. Winds from the capitals flew here, and grandiose events took place there. Change of power! And this creates a situation of some uncertainty and increased tension in the House of Freedom (as the former governor’s house in Tobolsk was called by that time).
Please at least consider the following. The Provisional Government stopped paying salaries to the soldiers of the Tsarist guard, but the Bolshevik government has not yet started. In addition, revolution among the soldiers is growing. The soldiers' meeting, for example, decided to remove the shoulder straps. Now in Tobolsk you could get into trouble for wearing shoulder straps. It happened that local residents attacked people in uniform and beat them, and tore off their shoulder straps. On January 3, 1918, the Soldiers' Committee of the garrison decided to remove the shoulder straps from Nicholas II.
That is, there is little left of the isolation and peace desired by the royal family?
In fact, by this time there was no peace for a long time. Letters arrived in bags to the former governor's house, especially many addressed to Alexandra Fedorovna. It was written about her relationship with Grigory Rasputin, and all sorts of obscene proposals were made to the princesses. Surprisingly, letters even arrived from America.
How does the new government in the capitals react to the continued presence of the royal family in Tobolsk?
The first time - no way. There was no time for that. And there were no reasons to particularly engage with the “former” ones. Well, they live there and live there, they don’t make any political movements - and that’s fine.
However, the Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks, with their increasingly radical, as I already said, mood, are showing increasing interest in Tobolsk. Moreover, rumors begin to persistently creep in from there: the royal family is planning an escape. Having reached Yekaterinburg, these rumors are then not only widely broadcast, but also intensified and in some ways supplemented.
Rumors are growing. They are published in newspapers, and, I emphasize, not only and not so much Bolshevik ones. There are still many different newspapers. They write, for example, that the king divorced the queen. It is reported that Nikolai became a monk and went to the Abalakovsky monastery. There is news that he completely ran away in an unknown direction. There is a widespread rumor that the light schooner “St. Mary” is standing ready at the pier on the Irtysh - specifically to whisk the royal family abroad.
Sometimes refutations of such “information” are also printed, but rarely and in the smallest font, on the last page of the newspaper. And the rumors are flying! They are perceived excitedly, like an adventurous novel. They excite both quiet Tobolsk and wary and menacing Yekaterinburg, which is increasingly watching what is happening there, in Tobolsk, around the royal family.
On top of that, at this moment a very mysterious figure appears here, which increases the intrigue.
Who is this?
By the will of circumstances - my namesake. Named Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov. Adventurous personality. Rasputin's son-in-law is married to his youngest daughter Matryona (Maria). And before that, he allegedly spent several years in India, where he studied hypnosis and all kinds of occult techniques. For example, killing from a distance. He told his friends about himself. And the White Guard investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who will later deal with the case of the execution of the royal family, will consider Solovyov a freemason and a German spy.
During the February Revolution, volunteer lieutenant Boris Solovyov made a career - he became Guchkov’s adjutant. With the help of hidden Kornilovites, he receives the position of assistant to the head of the Far East department at the Ministry of War and supposedly works in the commission “for accepting particularly important orders for the defense of the state.” I don’t know if there was actually such a commission - this man could have composed anything. It is known for certain: he loved money very much.
But for what purpose did he appear in Tobolsk?
In order to free the royal family. After October, Solovyov, with incomprehensible functions, entered the service of the banker Karl Iosifovich Yaroshinsky, close to the famous friend of the Empress Vyrubova and, in general, to the circle of Alexandra Feodorovna. They give him a salary of 40 thousand rubles a year. At the same time, Vyrubova persuades Yaroshinsky to give Solovyov 25 thousand rubles to help the imperial family. So, having received this substantial money in royal banknotes, Solovyov heads to Tobolsk.
And how does it work there?
Frankly, it's strange. He told priest Alexei Vasiliev that he had come on behalf of the “center” to free the royal family and that he headed a large armed organization. It is clear that this immediately becomes known to the king, his family and everyone around them, causing joy and great hopes. Still would! The son-in-law of his beloved Grigory Efimovich Rasputin himself arrived as a liberator.
And then practically nothing. Everything turned into some kind of operetta. Solovyov walks around Tobolsk, walks under the windows of the governor’s house. The Empress smiles at him from the window, the Tsar and everyone else talk about him. They lend him money and give him some of the royal jewelry. The most fantastic plans are being made. For example, rafting on motor boats to the mouth of the Irtysh, and then north, asking the British for a ship and sailing to London across the Arctic Ocean...
In general, just fantasies?
No more. But on February 7, 1918, Solovyov returned to Petrograd and said that he had gathered a group of like-minded people and the liberation of the former emperor along with his family was nearing a successful conclusion.
Apparently, Yaroshinsky, experienced not only in financial matters, did not really believe Solovyov, so this time he allocated only 10 thousand rubles. However, with the help of Vyrubova, he continued collecting funds among the more naive and, when he already had several tens of thousands of rubles, he again went to Tobolsk. Again to priest Alexey Vasiliev.
Another significant meeting for the “liberator” takes place there - with a young, 19-year-old admirer of the royal family, Sergei Markov. Solovyov tells him tales about how he leads the “Brotherhood of St. John of Tobolsk,” created to liberate the Tsar, and supposedly there are already 120 people in this organization. And in Petrograd he announced the creation of an officer detachment of 300 sabers.
Is it also a fairy tale?
Of course.
But, nevertheless, Markov became Solovyov’s associate in his adventure?
For a very short time. Probably, on Solovyov’s instructions, Markov goes to Rasputin’s homeland, to the village of Pokrovskoye, and there he receives news of a big trouble that has happened to the “boss”: Solovyov has been arrested.
Indeed, this happened in Tyumen. Boris Nikolaevich sometimes got too carried away and lost his sense of danger. The Bolsheviks arrested him. And by some miracle, Rasputin’s daughter, wife Maria - Mara, as he called her, came to the rescue. In her diary, she wrote that she burst into tears when she saw Borya in an iron cage.
In order to finish the story with this unlucky “liberator” of the royal family, I will say: having fled from the Bolsheviks from Tyumen, he was later arrested again - this time by the whites in Chita. And again I got out thanks to the same Mara! Her friend turned out to be a friend of the notorious Ataman Semenov. So he took action. And on the finger of the ataman’s friend, an imperial diamond of the purest water appeared...
To prevent an allegedly impending escape, the Omsk, Tyumen, and Ural teams come into play...
Vladimir Nikolaevich, it would be necessary to understand more specifically how at the beginning of 1918 the relations between the central and local authorities developed, and if geographically, between Petrograd, Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Tobolsk. Because, as I understand it, these were the main addresses, which in one way or another influenced the future fate of the family of Nicholas II.
If we talk about Tobolsk, where the family of the former tsar still remained, the situation there became more and more tense day by day. After the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the Tobolsk delegation returned from Petrograd, bringing with it instructions to liquidate all local institutions and organizations of the Provisional Government. At the end of January 1918, Tobolsk provincial commissar Pignatti, a librarian and local historian, a rather gentle man who, from the point of view of the requirements of the time, did not cope with his responsibilities and could not cope, resigned. Vasily Pankratov, who at one time was appointed commissioner for the protection of the former tsar, also resigned on January 24.
Well, who headed the new government in the city and province? Who became the head of the royal guard?
This was all very difficult. And it was precisely the presence in the city of the family of the former emperor and himself that became a certain special circumstance around which different forces began to collide.
Confusion with the security of the royal family grew, as new soldiers arrived from Petrograd to replace the old soldiers, who had gone through the revolutionary school in the capital, but the old ones did not leave either. Discord, friction between companies. And soon more contenders for the protection of the so-called House of Freedom appear.
At the beginning of March 1918, Commissioner of the Zapsibsovet V.D. arrived from Omsk to Tobolsk. Dutsman, and after him a detachment of hundreds of Omsk Red Guards appeared, led by A.F. Demyanov. So he, Demyanov, was appointed extraordinary commissioner of Tobolsk and Tobolsk district.
He also took charge of the house where the former king’s family was located?
The Omsk Red Guards really first decided to take control of the House of Freedom. But it was not there! The house security objected. Then Nicholas II wrote in his diary that the soldiers of the security detachment began to prepare machine guns for battle.
In general, the fight could have turned out to be serious. What saved us was that the Omsk detachment behaved quite calmly. In fact, he retreated. In general, during the entire time there was not a single shot fired by his fighters. Not a single person was arrested, not a single search was carried out.
What were their actions?
The bodies of the old government were dispersed and a new provincial council was created. Its chairman was Pavel Khokhryakov. A former sailor, fireman of the battleship "Emperor Alexander II", he was secretly abandoned in Tobolsk by the Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks even earlier. He settled here, got married, and now he has come into power.
But what happened to the king's guards?
She remained as before. However, since rumors about the impending escape of the royal family had already spread very widely by this time, a number of Bolshevik organizations neighboring Tobolsk decided to take their own measures to prevent the escape. And after the Omsk detachment, the Tyumen detachment arrives in Tobolsk. For the king!
Did they succeed in anything?
Omsk residents of Tyumen were kicked out. By the way, the royal family heard how the Tyumen detachment left Tobolsk with whistles, whoops and bells on fifteen troikas.
Then the Tyumen residents were replaced by the Urals. Two groups of the Ural detachment under the command of Semyon Zaslavsky arrived in Tobolsk on March 28 and April 13. And then, in April 1918, another detachment led by Busyatsky arrived from Yekaterinburg.
Do Yekaterinburg residents still have the greatest interest in the royal family?
I spoke about a particularly radical attitude in the leadership of this organization. It was significantly strengthened by the influence of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who were part of the Urals Council. So here, even earlier, they began to create special combat groups that were sent secretly and in different ways to Tobolsk in order to block the routes of a possible royal escape. In the villages, members of these groups posed as peddlers to disguise themselves...
But now a more ambitious plan has been developed in Yekaterinburg, and it is aimed directly at Tobolsk. With the task of capturing the Romanovs, for which the sent detachments were ordered, if necessary, to “open hostilities.” The question was posed as follows: deliver alive or dead.
So the second was not ruled out?
That's the point! Not only was it not excluded, but it was envisaged - in fact, as the main goal. They knew in Yekaterinburg that Moscow was preparing a trial of the former tsar. However, here it was considered an unnecessary “excess”. It is best to capture the royal family in Tobolsk, and then “lose” it somewhere along the way in the confusion of the Civil War. In fact, destroy it under any pretext.
So, the Yekaterinburg plan essentially opposed Moscow, opposed Lenin?
Undoubtedly. However, Moscow did not know the secret plans of the Urals. Numerous signals about the unreliability of the security of the royal family and the organization of a possible escape forced the Kremlin to react - to decide to transport her from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.
Why was Yekaterinburg chosen?
It was necessary to deliver the tsar and his family to a point where, firstly, more reliable security could be provided, and secondly, from where they could quickly be brought to Moscow at any time for a trial. Yekaterinburg seemed to fully meet these two requirements.
The Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee entrust the delivery of the Romanovs from Tobolsk to their reliable person.
Who was entrusted to lead the reliable security of the Tsar and his relatives when they moved from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg?
This is Konstantin Alekseevich Myachin, a member of the Bolshevik Party since 1904, the organizer of military squads during the first Russian revolution. In October 1917, he became a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, a delegate to the Second Congress of Soviets. He was a member of the board of the Cheka and Dzerzhinsky’s deputy immediately after the creation of this organization. His most important characteristic is that he is a man of rare courage and determination.
He selects the same ones for his squad to carry out an important task. About a hundred people whom he personally knew from combat during the 1905 revolution. He only takes those whom he trusts unconditionally. The detachment has its own telegraph operator. There are nine machine guns in service.
What is the reaction in Yekaterinburg to this detachment and its mission?
Myachin (at this time he had an underground pseudonym - Yakovlev) went to Tobolsk just through Yekaterinburg. At the station he meets with local leaders - Goloshchekin and Didkovsky. Shows his credentials. And they are really serious! The leaders of the party and the Soviet state ordered all citizens and organizations, under threat of execution on the spot, to provide Yakovlev with all possible assistance.
The powers given to him emphasize that the “cargo” (as they called it in the Romanovs’ correspondence for the sake of conspiracy) must be delivered alive. Here is Lenin's categorical instruction!
Of course, the Ural leaders could not possibly like this. They sent their detachments to Tobolsk with the opposite task - to “liquidate” the Romanovs at all costs. And now two tasks collided.
Deliver alive? Or dead? Answers and actions are different
So, are the Myachin-Yakovlev detachment with the task of the center and the detachments sent by the Urals Council really colliding?
I'll tell you in order. This is a story straight out of an adventure film. Not fictitious, but real.
Myachin, on the way to Tobolsk, first meets Avdeev’s Yekaterinburg detachment and subjugates it to himself. The same thing happens with Busyatsky’s detachment, which had the task of killing the Romanovs. But with the third detachment, which had the same task, headed by Semyon Savelyevich Zaslavsky, Myachin did not succeed.
Zaslavsky is a bright personality in his own way. He is young, he is only 28 years old, but he has already been convicted twice for revolutionary activities. A mechanic by trade, he served in the Baltic Fleet and graduated from midshipman school. He enjoyed exceptional authority among the workers. I say all this to mean that both sides in the clash that took place were led by very extraordinary people.
How does Myachin act upon arrival in Tobolsk? As far as I understand, he still needs to somehow resolve the issue with the royal guards...
Well, yes, the guardsmen are great, Colonel Kobylinsky. These fellows, however, have been sitting without money for a long time and really want to leave Tobolsk. But Myachin has money, and the train is waiting for him in Tyumen. It is on this basis that Myachin negotiates with Kobylinsky, presenting his high-ranking documents. The debt to the security detachment has been paid for several months, relations have been established. The security agrees to the Tsar's move from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. True, there is a completely natural doubt: won’t the king be harmed during the move, that is, won’t he be killed along the way?
Myachin finds a way out: he proposes to organize joint security. This even works to his advantage: his detachment will be strengthened by front-line soldiers.
How does the king feel about the move?
Negative. But more, perhaps, not because he is afraid of possible trouble. It seems to him that they are taking him so that he can put his signature on the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which he considers shameful and which the allies will probably not recognize without his signature. Moreover, at this time the prince is sick and lies in bed.
But Myachin insists on the need to go. And in the end, the decision is made jointly. Nikolai, Alexandra Feodorovna and daughter Maria will go, as well as Doctor Botkin and several servants. The rest with servants and guards remain for now (they will be transported to Yekaterinburg later).
And everything that unfolded this time on the road to the capital of the Urals was caused precisely by different tasks that were solved by Myachin-Yakovlev’s detachment and Zaslavsky’s Yekaterinburg detachment. The same question is the main one: deliver alive or dead?
What did you go on?
First on carts. And we had to hurry: the rivers were about to open up. And when they were just loading, Zaslavsky comes up to Myachin and says: they say, don’t sit next to Nikolai - we’ll kill him on the way. Myachin replies: I was ordered to deliver the “cargo” alive - and I will deliver it. “Well, look,” - this is probably how Zaslavsky answered the envoy of Lenin and Sverdlov.
His behavior, of course, was very disliked by those carrying out the radical task of the Urals Council?
Still would! He stood across. Zaslavsky is somewhat behind with his squad and holds a secret meeting: what to do? He himself proposes to set up an ambush near the village of Ivleevo, where Myachin-Yakovlev will arrange his first overnight stay. “Just in case,” as some participants later wrote in their memoirs.
But in reality, everything is much more serious. A fighter from Zaslavsky’s detachment, Alexander Nevolin, runs over to Myachin and says: a secret decision has been made to shoot the royal family and your entire detachment. This fighter is sincerely amazed and shocked. And most of all, probably, by the fact that their own will kill their own!
There is something to be amazed by...
Yes, the Urals Council went so far as to kill the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Commissioner of the Kremlin. He went so far as to completely destroy the entire Bolshevik detachment (more than a hundred selected comrades!), representing Moscow, and then pretend that some “greenies” had killed them.
This is how far the confrontation between the center and the Urals Council on the “royal issue” has come! The ball required incredible ingenuity and the horses had to be driven literally with all their might to avoid the intended reprisal.
But further - more. After a crazy ride through the spring thaw, a quick change of horses, and a crossing on unreliable ice (the Tobol River will be free of ice the next day!) they arrive in Tyumen. Here you will board the train. And here they tell Myachin in secret: this train is about to crash!
It turns out that the Urals Council decided to derail the train with the Tsar. And not only with the tsar and his loved ones, but again with the entire Bolshevik detachment carrying out Lenin’s task.
Well, the situation...
Myachin, along with the “cargo” and his fighters, boards the letter train, but he has already thought out his reciprocal steps. At a time when orders from the Chairman of the Urals Council Beloborodov are being sent along the entire line to Yekaterinburg to organize a collision with this train and the destruction of Myachin’s detachment, who allegedly turned out to be a traitor, he unexpectedly turns the train to Omsk.
I didn’t know that he had an informant from Yekaterinburg with him - Avdeev, who secretly informs the leadership of the Urals Council about the actions and plans of the Kremlin commissar. So, when they approach Omsk, guns and an armed barrier are already waiting there.
More twisted than any detective!
It's right. Warned, Myachin, leaving the train, still breaks through to Omsk on an uncoupled steam locomotive, where he finds his old friend Kosarev, a classmate from the party school in Capri. Now he is the chairman of the Omsk Council. Together they contact Sverdlov by telegraph, explaining the situation. And only after the direct intervention of Sverdlov, after guarantees were given to Myachin (and before him, of course, to Lenin and Sverdlov) that the train would not be touched and it would reach Yekaterinburg, the movement continued.
Have you arrived now without incident?
What was waiting?
When we arrived at the station, we saw a raging crowd on the square in front of it. And furious cries were heard that the king would now be torn to pieces. In short, lynching could have occurred.
How did you manage to avoid it?
There was another train standing there, steaming, which Myachin managed to deploy between his train and the angry crowd. And then he takes the train to the Yekaterinburg-2 station.
In short, as we see, with great effort, determination and amazing ingenuity, the Bolshevik Konstantin Myachin, aka Yakovlev, managed to fulfill the assignment given to him by Lenin and Sverdlov. Those who were called “cargo” for the sake of conspiracy were delivered to their destination safe and sound.
Having made the decision to execute the royal family and carried it out, the leaders of the Urals Council confronted the Kremlin with a fait accompli
It sounds quite convincing that at that time Lenin and Sverdlov had no intention of destroying the royal family. But maybe they had such intentions later?
We can absolutely say that by July 16, 1918, that is, on the eve of the execution, the trial of Nicholas II was still being prepared in Moscow. There are documents.
The Kremlin considered it necessary to hold a trial of the Romanovs and was against the immediate execution of the Tsar. Not to mention his family. There is a lot of evidence of this. Both Lenin and Sverdlov did their best to restrain the obsession of the leaders of the Urals Council in this regard. The most interesting thing is that, according to the legislation of that time, the death penalty could not be applied to the former tsar. Extrajudicial killings were widely practiced, but in court such an outcome was excluded. The Urals Council knew this well.
In fact, I would like to call their behavior an obsession...
Probably, the spirit of the Great French Revolution with the execution of the king and queen at that time hovered over the heads of some Urals residents... Something else should be noted: strong pressure in the Urals Council from the left Socialist Revolutionaries, who all the time demanded the immediate execution of the Romanovs, accusing the Bolsheviks of liberalism and inconsistency. They say they are hiding the Tsar from popular retribution behind the high fences of the Ipatievs’ house. According to one of the participants in the events, “an attack on the house of a detachment of anarchists was expected, the leader of which shouted to the Bolsheviks in the Soviet of Deputies: “If you do not destroy Nicholas the Bloody, then we will do it ourselves!”
When today they call Lenin and Sverdlov the initiators of what happened in Yekaterinburg, they simply turn a blind eye to reality. They not only did not need this reprisal, but, I will say, it was downright “unprofitable”! After all, for living members of the royal family it was possible to bargain for something from the “world bourgeoisie.” I have already spoken about a number of great “inconveniences” that the death of the royal family entailed.
But did they stubbornly achieve their goal from Yekaterinburg?
When they tried to get it from Moscow, they were refused. I will give an excerpt from the memoirs of an active figure in the Ural Cheka and a participant in the execution of the royal family, Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin: “Report on a trip to Moscow to Y.M. Sverdlov was made by Philip Goloshchekin. Goloshchekin failed to obtain sanctions from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to execute the Romanov family. Sverdlov consulted with V.I. Lenin, who spoke in favor of bringing the royal family to Moscow and an open trial of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna...”
Everything is quite clear here.
My conclusion is this: the question of the execution on July 17, 1918 of the royal family, its associates and servants was not agreed upon with either Lenin or Sverdlov. The fact that the decision to execute Nicholas II was not known to Lenin until July 17 is evidenced, for example, by the fact that when asked by a Copenhagen newspaper about rumors about the death of the royal family, Lenin replies: “The former tsar is unharmed. All rumors are just lies of the capitalist press.”
When in June there were rumors about the death of the royal family, Moscow leaders, not trusting the Urals, specially sent front commander Reinhold Berzin to Ipatiev’s house, who was personally convinced that the royal family was alive. The fact that preparations for the execution of the royal family were not coordinated with the Kremlin is evidenced by the very text of the telegram sent to Lenin and Sverdlov. There was no direct connection between Moscow and Yekaterinburg at that time, and the message went through Petrograd. The telegram was sent by Zinoviev: “Moscow, the Kremlin, to Sverdlov, copy to Lenin. From Yekaterinburg the following is transmitted via direct wire: inform Moscow that the trial agreed upon with Filippov due to military circumstances cannot be delayed and we cannot wait. If your opinion is the opposite, tell me right now, out of turn. Goloshchekin, Safarov. Contact Yekaterinburg yourself about this.”
The telegram was received in Moscow at 21:22. By Moscow time. It took some time for the telegram to reach its recipients. Moreover, we must take into account: the telegraph was then located not in the Kremlin, but on Myasnitskaya. Let's not forget the time difference - it is two hours, that is, at the time the telegram was received in Yekaterinburg it was 23 hours 22 minutes. At this time, the Romanovs were already offered to go down to the execution room. We do not know whether Lenin and Sverdlov read the telegram before the first shots were fired, but we know that the telegram did not say anything about family and servants, so blaming the Kremlin leaders for the murder of children is at least unfair.
Maybe someone will say: the correspondence is just a “smoke screen,” and Lenin and Sverdlov at that moment deliberately hid the Kremlin’s decision to shoot the entire royal family.
No, this is not the Kremlin’s initiative. Lenin himself became, in a certain sense, a hostage to the radicalism and obsession of the leaders of the Urals Council. I think that in the Urals they understood that the execution of the royal family could give the Germans a reason to continue the war, for new seizures and indemnities. But they went for it! A day after the announcement of the execution, the Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Gorbunov receives a telegram from Beloborodov from Yekaterinburg. I will quote it verbatim, preserving the spelling: “Tell Sverdlov that the entire family suffered the same fate as the head. Officially, the family will die during the evacuation.” There are interesting memories of the mentioned member of the UralChK board Medvedev-Kudrin about how this telegram was sent: “Alexander (Chairman of the Urals Council Beloborodov) feared that V.I. Lenin will bring him to justice for his arbitrariness in executing the Romanovs without the sanction of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.” I imagine that the leaders of the Urals, like naughty cats, were waiting for what awaited them for the cruel execution. What was the Kremlin leadership supposed to do? Make public the “feat” of the Urals - the murder of German princesses and find yourself between a rock and a hard place - between the White Guards and the Germans? Information about the death of the entire royal family and servants was hidden for years.
Is the version of accidental death again emerging among the leaders of the Urals Council?
Yes. It is known that during the family’s stay in the Ipatiev House, correspondence between Nicholas II was organized, allegedly with some monarchist officer who was preparing to arrange their escape. Letters were written in French and passed through the nuns in the caps of milk bottles. Local security officers came up with an imaginary conspiracy. But the goal is one: to lure out the king, his family and kill everyone, allegedly while trying to escape. Suitable motivation. Nikolai, however, eventually refused, fearing casualties in a possible shootout...
Well, the center from Yekaterinburg all the time continued to escalate the danger of a conspiracy around the tsar and a possible escape. Moreover, the situation worsened by July: the uprising of the White Czechs, the offensive of the White Guard troops on Yekaterinburg.
In a word, the Kremlin was presented with a fait accompli. Apart from, as they say, an extra headache, the center received nothing from the Ural comrades in this case.
Were there any unexpected complications?
For example, already in September, the Soviet ambassador to Germany, Joffe, was negotiating with the Germans in Bern, Switzerland, including the transfer of German princesses, that is, the daughters of Nicholas II, to them. He doesn't know that they have been dead for a long time...
Completely indifferent, just like abroad. There were no monarchical speeches or demonstrations. The only striking speech of condemnation was the word spoken in the Kazan Cathedral by Patriarch Tikhon on July 21, 1918. But there was no noticeable reaction to this word.
Is there at least some indirect documentary evidence, so to speak, incriminating Lenin and Sverdlov in organizing the execution of the former tsar and his family?
No. It would be possible to cite one “fact”, but it, as it turns out, is initially unreliable. Although they refer to him! We are talking about a much later, 1930s, entry in Trotsky’s diary. And he writes that after some time, as if having arrived from the front, he learned about the death of the Tsar and his entire family. And he asked Sverdlov: “Who decided?” And he allegedly replied: “Ilyich decided.”
But such a conversation could not happen after a while! It couldn’t be for the reason that in the minutes of the meeting at which Sverdlov announced the execution of the former tsar, Trotsky’s name appears among those present. Therefore, he later composed that conversation “after arriving from the front” with Sverdlov about Lenin.
However, I am sure and have already told you about this: Trotsky was already beginning to play his game with might and main, so there is nothing to be surprised about...
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