The 20th century began Russian Empire not too well. Failed at first Russo-Japanese War, as a result of which Russia lost Port Arthur, and the authorities lost their authority among the already dissatisfied people. Nicholas II, unlike his predecessors, nevertheless decided to make concessions and give up a number of powers. So the first parliament appeared in Russia, but this did not help either.

Low level of economic development of the state, poverty, First World War and the growing influence of the socialists led to the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia. In 1917, Nicholas II signed the abdication of the throne on his behalf and on behalf of his son, Tsarevich Alexei. After that, the royal family, namely the emperor, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, daughters Tatyana, Anastasia, Olga, Maria and son Alexei were sent to Tobolsk.

The emperor, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, daughters Tatyana, Anastasia, Olga, Maria and son Alexei were sent to Tobolsk // Photo: ria.ru

Exile to Yekaterinburg and imprisonment in the Ipatiev house

There was no unity among the Bolsheviks about the future fate of the emperor. The country was plunged into civil war, and Nicholas II could become a trump card for the Whites. The Bolsheviks did not want this. But at the same time, according to a number of researchers, Vladimir Lenin did not want to quarrel with the German emperor Wilhelm, to whom the Romanovs were close relatives. Therefore, the "leader of the proletariat" was categorically against the massacre of Nicholas II and his family.

In April 1918, a decision was made to transfer royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg In the Urals, the Bolsheviks were more popular and were not afraid that the emperor could be released by his supporters. The royal family was placed in the requisitioned mansion of the mining engineer Ipatiev. The physician Evgeny Botkin, the cook Ivan Kharitonov, the valet Alexei Trupp and the room girl Anna Demidova were admitted to Nicholas II and his family. From the very beginning they declared their readiness to share the fate of the deposed emperor and his family.

As noted in the diaries of Nikolai Romanov and members of his family, exile in Yekaterinburg was a test for them // Photo: awesomestories.com

As noted in the diaries of Nikolai Romanov and members of his family, exile in Yekaterinburg became a test for them. The guards assigned to them allowed themselves liberties and often morally mocked the crowned persons. But at the same time, the nuns of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery daily sent fresh food to the emperor's table, trying to please the exiled anointed of God.

These deliveries are associated interesting story. Once, in a cork from a bottle of cream, the emperor found a note on French. It said that officers who remembered the oath were preparing the emperor's escape and he needed to be ready. Each time Nicholas II received such a note, he and his family members went to bed dressed and waited for their deliverers.

Later it turned out that it was a provocation of the Bolsheviks. They wanted to test how ready the emperor and his family were to escape. It turned out that they were waiting for the right moment. According to some researchers, this only strengthened the new government in the belief that it was necessary to get rid of the king as soon as possible.

The execution of the emperor

Until now, historians have not been able to find out who made the decision to kill the imperial family. Some argue that it was Lenin personally. But there is no documentary evidence for this. according to another version, Vladimir Lenin did not want to stain his hands with blood, and the responsibility for this decision took over the Ural Bolsheviks. The third version says that Moscow found out about the incident after the fact, and the decision was actually made in the Urals in connection with the uprising of the White Czechs. As Leon Trotsky noted in his memoirs, the execution order was practically given personally by Joseph Stalin.

“Having learned about the uprising of the White Czechs and the approach of the Whites to Yekaterinburg, Stalin uttered the phrase: “The Emperor must not fall into the hands of the Whites.” This phrase became the death sentence for the royal family. Trotsky writes.

By the way, Leon Trotsky was to become the main prosecutor at the show trial of Nicholas II. But it never took place.

The facts show that the execution of Nicholas II and his family was planned. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, a car for transporting corpses arrived at Ipatiev's house. Then the Romanovs were awakened and ordered to dress urgently. Allegedly, a group of people tried to free them from captivity, so the family will be urgently transported to another place. The assembly took about forty minutes. After that, members of the royal family were taken to the basement. Tsarevich Alexei could not walk on his own, so his father carried him in his arms.

Finding that there was absolutely no furniture in the room where they were taken, the empress asked to bring two chairs, on one of which she sat herself, and on the second she sat her son. The rest were lined up against the wall. After everyone gathered in the room, their chief jailer Yurovsky went down to the royal family and read out the verdict to the king. Yurovsky himself does not exactly remember what he said at that moment. Approximately he said that the supporters of the emperor tried to free him, so the Bolsheviks were forced to shoot him. Nicholas II turned around and asked again, and immediately the firing squad opened fire.

Nicholas II turned around and asked again, and immediately the firing squad opened fire // Photo: v-zdor.com

Nicholas II was one of the first to be killed, but his daughters and the Tsarevich were finished off with bayonets and shots from a revolver. Later, when the dead were undressed, they found a huge amount of jewelry in their clothes that protected the girls and the empress from bullets. Jewelry was stolen.

Burial of the remains

Immediately after the execution, the bodies were loaded into a car. Servants and a physician were killed along with the imperial family. As the Bolsheviks later explained their decision, these people themselves expressed their readiness to share the fate of the royal family.

Initially, the bodies were planned to be buried in an abandoned mine, but this idea failed because they could not arrange a collapse, and the corpses were easy to find. After the Bolsheviks made an attempt to burn the bodies. This venture was a success with the Tsarevich and room girl Anna Demidova. The rest were buried near the road under construction, after disfiguring the corpses with sulfuric acid. The burial was also supervised by Yurovsky.

Investigation and conspiracy theories

The murder of the royal family was investigated repeatedly. Soon after the murder, Yekaterinburg was still captured by the Whites, and the investigation was entrusted to the investigator of the Omsk District, Sokolov. After they were engaged in foreign and domestic experts. In 1998 the remains last emperor and his relatives were buried in St. Petersburg. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced the closure of the investigation in 2011.

As a result of the investigation, the remains of the imperial family were discovered and identified. Despite this, a number of experts continue to assert that not all members of the royal family were killed in Yekaterinburg. It is worth noting that initially the Bolsheviks announced the execution of only Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexei. For a long time, the world community and the people believed that Alexandra Fedorovna and her daughters were taken to another place and survived. In this regard, impostors periodically appeared, calling themselves the children of the last Russian emperor.

The main condition for the existence of immortality is death itself.

Stanislav Jerzy Lec

The execution of the Romanov royal family on the night of July 17, 1918 is one of the major events the era of the civil war, the formation Soviet power, as well as Russia's exit from the First World War. The murder of Nicholas 2 and his family was largely predetermined by the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. But in this story, not everything is as simple as it is commonly said. In this article, I will present all the facts that are known in this case in order to assess the events of those days.

History of events

We should start with the fact that Nicholas 2 was not the last Russian emperor, as many believe today. He abdicated (for himself and for his son Alexei) in favor of his brother, Mikhail Romanov. So he is the last emperor. This is important to remember, we will return to this fact later. Also, in most textbooks, the execution of the royal family is equated with the murder of the family of Nicholas 2. But these were far from all the Romanovs. To understand how many people in question, I will give only data on the latest Russian emperors:

• Nicholas 1 - 4 sons and 4 daughters.
• Alexander 2 - 6 sons and 2 daughters.
• Alexander 3 - 4 sons and 2 daughters.
• Nicholas 2 - son and 4 daughters.

That is, the family is very large, and any of the list above is a direct descendant of the imperial branch, which means a direct contender for the throne. But most of them also had children of their own ...

Arrest of members of the royal family

Nicholas 2, having abdicated the throne, put forward rather simple demands, the fulfillment of which the Provisional Government guaranteed. The requirements were as follows:

• Safe transfer of the emperor to Tsarskoe Selo to his family, where at that time Tsarevich Alexei was more.
• The safety of the whole family at the time of their stay in Tsarskoye Selo until the full recovery of Tsarevich Alexei.
• The safety of the road to the northern ports of Russia, from where Nicholas 2 and his family should cross to England.
• After graduation civil war the royal family will return to Russia and will live in Livadia (Crimea).

It is important to understand these points in order to see the intentions of Nicholas 2 and later the Bolsheviks. The emperor abdicated the throne so that the current government would provide him with a safe exit to England.

What is the role of the British government?

The provisional government of Russia, after receiving the demands of Nicholas 2, turned to England with the question of the consent of the latter to host the Russian monarch. A positive response was received. But here it is important to understand that the request itself was a formality. The fact is that at that time an investigation was underway against the royal family, for the period of which it was impossible to leave Russia. Therefore, England, giving consent, did not risk anything at all. Something else is much more interesting. After the complete justification of Nicholas 2, the Provisional Government again makes a request to England, but more specific. This time the question was no longer posed abstractly, but concretely, because everything was ready for the move to the island. But then England refused.

So when today Western countries and people screaming at every corner about the innocently killed, talk about the execution of Nicholas 2, this only causes a reaction of disgust at their hypocrisy. One word from the British government that they agree to accept Nicholas 2 with his family, and in principle there would be no execution. But they refused...

In the photo on the left is Nicholas 2, on the right is George 4, King of England. They were distant relatives and had an obvious resemblance in appearance.

When was the royal family of the Romanovs executed?

Michael's murder

After the October Revolution, Mikhail Romanov approached the Bolsheviks with a request to remain in Russia as an ordinary citizen. This request was granted. But the last Russian emperor was not destined to live "quietly" for long. Already in March 1918 he was arrested. There is no reason for the arrest. Until now, not a single historian has been able to find a single historical document explaining the reason for the arrest of Mikhail Romanov.

After his arrest, on March 17 he was sent to Perm, where he lived for several months in a hotel. On the night of July 13, 1918, he was taken away from the hotel and shot. This was the first victim of the Romanov family by the Bolsheviks. The official reaction of the USSR to this event was ambivalent:

• It was announced to its citizens that Mikhail shamefully fled from Russia abroad. Thus, the authorities got rid of unnecessary questions, and, most importantly, received a legitimate reason to toughen the maintenance of the rest of the members of the royal family.
• For foreign countries through the media, it was announced that Mikhail was missing. They say he went out on the night of July 13 for a walk and did not return.

The execution of the family of Nicholas 2

The backstory here is quite interesting. Immediately after the October Revolution, the Romanov royal family was arrested. The investigation did not reveal the guilt of Nicholas 2, so the charges were dropped. At the same time, it was impossible to let the family go to England (the British refused), and the Bolsheviks really did not want to send them to the Crimea, because there were “whites” very close by. Yes, and throughout almost the entire Civil War, Crimea was under the control of the white movement, and all the Romanovs who were on the peninsula were saved by moving to Europe. Therefore, they decided to send them to Tobolsk. The fact of secrecy of the dispatch is noted in his diaries by Nikolay 2, who writes that they were taken to ONE of the cities in the depths of the country.

Until March, the royal family lived relatively calmly in Tobolsk, but on March 24 an investigator arrived here, and on March 26 a reinforced detachment of Red Army soldiers arrived. In fact, since that time, enhanced security measures have begun. The basis is the imaginary flight of Michael.

Subsequently, the family was moved to Yekaterinburg, where she settled in the Ipatiev house. On the night of July 17, 1918, the Romanov royal family was shot. Together with them, their servants were also shot. In total that day died:

• Nicholas 2,
• His wife, Alexandra
• The emperor's children are Tsarevich Alexei, Maria, Tatiana and Anastasia.
• Family doctor - Botkin
• Maid - Demidova
• Personal chef - Kharitonov
• Footman - Troupe.

In total, 10 people were shot. corpses by official version was thrown into the mine and filled with acid.

Who killed the family of Nicholas 2?

I have already said above that since March, the protection of the royal family has been significantly increased. After moving to Yekaterinburg, it was already a full-fledged arrest. The family was settled in the house of Ipatiev, and a guard was presented to them, the head of the garrison of which was Avdeev. On July 4, almost the entire composition of the guard was replaced, as was his chief. In the future, it was these people who were accused of murdering the royal family:

• Yakov Yurovsky. Supervised the execution.
• Grigory Nikulin. Yurovsky's assistant.
• Peter Ermakov. Head of the Emperor's Guard.
• Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin. Cheka representative.

These are the main persons, but there were also ordinary performers. It is noteworthy that all of them significantly survived this event. Most later took part in the Second World War, received a pension from the USSR.

Reprisal against the rest of the family

Since March 1918, other members of the royal family have been gathering in Alapaevsk (Perm province). In particular, Princess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Princes John, Konstantin and Igor, as well as Vladimir Paley are imprisoned here. The latter was the grandson of Alexander 2, but had a different surname. Subsequently, all of them were transported to Vologda, where on July 19, 1918 they were thrown alive into the mine.

The latest events in the destruction of the Romanov dynastic family date back to January 19, 1919, when Peter and Paul Fortress Princes Nikolai and Georgy Mikhailovich, Pavel Alexandrovich and Dmitry Konstantinovich were shot.

Reaction to the assassination of the Romanov imperial family

The murder of the family of Nicholas 2 had the greatest resonance, which is why it needs to be studied. There are many sources indicating that when Lenin was informed about the murder of Nicholas 2, he did not seem to even react to it. It is impossible to check such judgments, but you can refer to archival documents. In particular, we are interested in Minutes No. 159 of the meeting of the Council People's Commissars dated July 18, 1918. The protocol is very short. Heard the question of the murder of Nicholas 2. Decided - to take note. That's it, just take note. There are no other documents regarding this case! This is complete absurdity. In the yard of the 20th century, but not a single document is preserved regarding such an important historical event, except for one note "Take note" ...

However, the underlying reaction to the murder is investigation. They started

Investigations into the murder of the family of Nicholas 2

The leadership of the Bolsheviks, as expected, began an investigation into the murder of the family. The official investigation began on 21 July. She conducted an investigation quickly enough, since Kolchak's troops approached Yekaterinburg. The main conclusion of this official investigation is that there was no murder. Only Nikolai 2 was shot by the verdict of the Yekaterinburg Soviet. But there are a number of very weak points that still cast doubt on the veracity of the investigation:

• The investigation began a week later. In Russia, the former emperor is being killed, and the authorities react to this a week later! Why was this week of pause?
• Why conduct an investigation if there was a shooting on the orders of the Soviets? In this case, right on July 17, the Bolsheviks were supposed to report that “the execution of the Romanov royal family took place on the orders of the Yekaterinburg Soviet. Nikolai 2 was shot, but his family was not touched.
• There are no supporting documents. Even today, all references to the decision of the Yekaterinburg Council are oral. Even in Stalin's times, when they were shot by the millions, documents remained, they say, "by the decision of the troika and so on" ...

On the 20th of July 1918, Kolchak's army entered Yekaterinburg, and one of the first orders was to begin an investigation into the tragedy. Today everyone is talking about investigator Sokolov, but before him there were 2 more investigators with the names Nametkin and Sergeev. No one has officially seen their reports. Yes, and Sokolov's report was published only in 1924. According to the investigator, the entire royal family was shot. By this time (back in 1921), the Soviet leadership had voiced the same data.

The sequence of the destruction of the Romanov dynasty

In the story of the execution of the royal family, it is very important to observe the chronology, otherwise it is very easy to get confused. And the chronology here is this - the dynasty was destroyed in the order of contenders for succession to the throne.

Who was the first pretender to the throne? That's right, Mikhail Romanov. I remind you again - back in 1917, Nicholas 2 abdicated the throne for himself and for his son in favor of Mikhail. Therefore, he was the last emperor, and he was the first claimant to the throne, in the event of the restoration of the Empire. Mikhail Romanov was killed on July 13, 1918.

Who was next in line of succession? Nicholas 2 and his son, Tsarevich Alexei. The candidacy of Nicholas 2 is controversial here, in the end he renounced power on his own. Although in his attitude everyone could play the other way, because in those days almost all laws were violated. But Tsarevich Alexei was a clear contender. Father didn't have legal law renounce the throne for his son. As a result, the entire family of Nicholas 2 was shot on July 17, 1918.

Next in line were all the other princes, of whom there were quite a few. Most of them were gathered in Alapaevsk and killed on July 19, 1918. As they say, rate the speed: 13, 17, 19. If we were talking about random murders that were not related to each other, then there would simply not be such a similarity. In less than 1 week, almost all pretenders to the throne were killed, and in order of succession, but history today considers these events isolated from each other, and absolutely not paying attention to disputed places.

Alternative versions of the tragedy

A key alternative version of this historical event is set forth in Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers' book The Murder That Wasn't. It hypothesizes that there was no execution. IN in general terms situation is as follows...

• The reasons for the events of those days should be sought in the Brest peace treaty between Russia and Germany. The argument is that despite the fact that the secrecy stamp from the documents has long been removed (it was 60 years old, that is, in 1978 there should have been a publication) there is not a single full version this document. An indirect confirmation of this is that the “executions” began precisely after the signing of the peace treaty.
• It is a well-known fact that the wife of Nicholas 2, Alexandra, was a relative of the German Kaiser Wilhelm 2. It is assumed that Wilhelm 2 contributed to Brest Peace a clause according to which Russia undertakes to ensure the safe departure to Germany of Alexandra and her daughters.
• As a result, the Bolsheviks extradited women to Germany, and Nicholas 2 and his son Alexei were left hostage. Subsequently, Tsarevich Alexei grew up in Alexei Kosygin.

A new round of this version was given by Stalin. It is a well-known fact that one of his favorites was Alexei Kosygin. There are no big reasons to believe this theory, but there is one detail. It is known that Stalin always called Kosygin nothing more than "tsarevich".

Canonization of the royal family

In 1981, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized Nicholas 2 and his family as great martyrs. In 2000, this happened in Russia as well. To date, Nicholas 2 and his family are great martyrs and innocently killed, therefore they are saints.

A few words about the Ipatiev house

The Ipatiev House is the place where the family of Nicholas 2 was imprisoned. There is a very well-reasoned hypothesis that it was possible to escape from this house. Moreover, in contrast to the unfounded alternative version, there is one important fact. So, the general version is that there was an underground passage from the basement of the Ipatiev house, which no one knew about, and which led to a factory located nearby. Proof of this has already been provided in our day. Boris Yeltsin gave the order to demolish the house and build a church in its place. This was done, but one of the bulldozers during the work fell into this same underground passage. There is no other evidence of a possible escape of the royal family, but the fact itself is curious. At the very least, it leaves room for thought.

To date, the house has been demolished, and the Church on the Blood has been erected in its place.

Summarizing

In 2008 the Supreme Court Russian Federation recognized the family of Nicholas 2 as a victim of repression. Case is closed.

Yekaterinburg on the night of July 17, 1918, the Bolsheviks shot Nicholas II, his entire family (wife, son, four daughters) and servants.

But the murder of the royal family was not an execution in the usual sense: a volley - and the condemned fall dead. Only Nicholas II and his wife quickly died - the rest, due to the chaos in the execution room, waited for death for several more minutes. The 13-year-old son of Alexei, the daughters and servants of the emperor were shot in the head and stabbed with bayonets. How all this horror happened - will tell HistoryTime.

Reconstruction

The Ipatiev House, where the terrible events took place, has been recreated in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore in a 3D computer model. Virtual reconstruction allows you to walk through the premises of the "last palace" of the emperor, look into the rooms where he lived, Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, servants, go out into the courtyard, go into the rooms on the first floor (where the guards lived) and into the so-called execution room, in which the king and family were martyred.

The situation in the house was recreated to the smallest detail (down to the paintings on the walls, the sentry's machine gun in the corridor and the bullet holes in the "execution room") on the basis of documents (including protocols for inspecting the house made by representatives of the "white" investigation), vintage photo, as well as interior details that have survived to this day thanks to museum workers: in the Ipatiev House long time there was a Historical and Revolutionary Museum, and before the demolition in 1977, its employees were able to remove and save some items.

For example, the pillars from the stairs to the second floor or the fireplace, near which the emperor smoked (it was forbidden to leave the house), were preserved. Now all these things are on display in the Romanovs' Hall of the Museum of Local Lore. " The most valuable exhibit of our exposition is the grate that stood in the window of the "execution room", - says the creator of the 3D reconstruction, head of the department of the history of the Romanov dynasty of the museum, Nikolai Neuimin. - She is a mute witness to those terrible events.”

In July 1918, "red" Yekaterinburg was preparing for evacuation: the White Guards were approaching the city. Realizing that taking the tsar and his family away from Yekaterinburg was dangerous for the young revolutionary republic (on the road it would be impossible to provide imperial family the same good protection as in the Ipatiev house, and Nicholas II could easily be beaten off by the monarchists), the leaders of the Bolshevik party decide to destroy the tsar, along with his children and servants.

On the fateful night, having waited for the final order from Moscow (the car brought him at half past one in the night), the commandant of the "home special purpose» Yakov Yurovsky ordered Dr. Botkin to wake Nikolai and his family.

Until the last minute, they did not know that they would be killed: they were told that they were being transferred to another place for security reasons, as the city became restless - there was an evacuation due to the advance of the white troops.

The room they were taken to was empty: there was no furniture - only two chairs were brought. The famous note of the commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yurovsky, who commanded the execution, reads:

Nikolay put Alexei on one, Alexandra Fedorovna sat on the other. The rest of the commandant ordered to stand in a row. ... He said to the Romanovs that in view of the fact that their relatives in Europe continue to attack Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned his back on the team, facing the family, then, as if coming to his senses, turned around with the question: “What? What?".

According to Neuimin, the short “Yurovsky Note” (written in 1920 by the historian Pokrovsky under the dictation of a revolutionary) is important, but not best document. Yurovsky's "Memoirs" (1922) and, especially, in the transcript of his speech at the secret meeting of the old Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg (1934) are told much more fully about the execution and subsequent events. There are also memories of other participants in the execution: in 1963-1964, the KGB, on behalf of the Central Committee of the CPSU, interrogated all the survivors of them. " Their words echo Yurovsky's stories different years: they all say the same thing", - says a museum employee.

Execution

According to commandant Yurovsky, things did not go at all as he had planned. " His idea was that in this room - plastered with wooden blocks wall, and there will be no ricochet, - says Neuimin. - But a little higher are concrete vaults. The revolutionaries fired aimlessly, the bullets began to hit the concrete and bounce. Yurovsky says that in the midst of it he was forced to give the command to cease fire: one bullet flew over his ear, and the other hit a comrade in the finger».

Yurovsky recalled in 1922:

For a long time I could not stop this shooting, which had taken on a careless character. But when I finally managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Dr. Botkin was lying, leaning on his elbow right hand, as if in the pose of a rester, finished him off with a revolver shot. Alexei, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidov's maid was also alive.

The fact that despite the long firing, the members of the royal family remained alive is simply explained.

It was distributed in advance who would shoot whom, but most of the revolutionaries began to shoot at the "tyrant" - at Nikolai. " In the wake of revolutionary hysteria, they believed that he was a crowned executioner- says Neuimin. - Liberal-democratic propaganda, starting from the revolution of 1905, wrote such things about Nicholas! Postcards were issued - Alexandra Feodorovna with Rasputin, Nicholas II with huge branched horns, in the Ipatiev house all the walls were inscriptions on this topic».

Yurovsky wanted everything to be unexpected for the royal family, so those whom the family knew (most likely) entered the room: commandant Yurovsky himself, his assistant Nikulin, head of security Pavel Medvedev. The rest of the shooters stood in doorway in three rows

In addition, Yurovsky did not take into account the size of the room (approximately 4.5 by 5.5 meters): the members of the royal family settled down in it, but there was no longer enough space for the executioners, and they stood one behind the other. There is an assumption that only three were standing inside the room - those whom the royal family knew (commandant Yurovsky, his assistant Grigory Nikulin and head of security Pavel Medvedev), two more stood in the doorway, the rest behind them. Aleksey Kabanov, for example, recalls that he stood in the third row and fired, sticking his hand with a pistol between the shoulders of his comrades.

He also says that when he finally entered the room, he saw that Medvedev (Kudrin), Ermakov and Yurovsky were standing “above the girls” and were shooting at them from above. Ballistic examination confirmed that Olga, Tatyana and Maria (except Anastasia) had bullet wounds to the head. Yurovsky writes:

Tov. Ermakov wanted to finish the job with a bayonet. But, however, it did not work. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond shells like bras). I had to shoot each one in turn.

When the shooting stopped, it turned out that Aleksey was alive on the floor - it turns out that no one had shot at him (Nikulin was supposed to shoot, but he later said that he could not, because he liked Alyoshka - a couple of days before the execution he carved a wooden pipe). The prince was in a swoon, but he was breathing - and Yurovsky also shot him point-blank in the head.

Agony

When it seemed that everything was over, rose in the corner female figure(servant Anna Demidova) with a pillow in her hands. With a cry " Thank God! God saved me!(all bullets lodged in the pillow) she tried to run away. But the ammo ran out. Later, Yurovsky said that Ermakov, they say, well done, did not lose his head - he ran out into the corridor, where Strekotin was standing at the machine gun, grabbed his rifle and began to poke the maid with a bayonet. She groaned for a long time and did not die.

The Bolsheviks began to carry the bodies of the dead into the corridor. At this time, one of the girls - Anastasia - sat down and screamed wildly, realizing what had happened (it turns out that she fainted during the execution). " Then Ermakov pierced her - she died the last most painful death", - says Nikolai Neuimin.

Kabanov says that he got "the hardest" thing - to kill dogs (before the execution, Tatyana had a French bulldog in her arms, and Anastasia had a dog named Jimmy).

Medvedev (Kudrin) writes that the "triumphant Kabanov" came out with a rifle in his hand, on the bayonet of which two dogs dangled, and with the words "to dogs - dog death" threw them into the truck, where the corpses of members of the royal family were already lying.

During interrogation, Kabanov said that he barely pierced the animals with a bayonet, but, as it turned out, he lied: in the well of mine No. he stabbed the animal, and finished off the other with the butt.

All this terrible agony lasted, according to various researchers, up to half an hour, and even some hardened revolutionaries could not stand the nerves. Neumin says:

There, in the house of Ipatiev, there was a guard Dobrynin, who abandoned his post and ran away. There was the head of the external guard, Pavel Spiridonovich Medvedev, who was put in charge of all the guards of the house (he is not a Chekist, but a Bolshevik who fought, and they trusted him). Medvedev-Kudrin writes that Pavel fell during the execution, then began crawling out of the room on all fours. When his comrades asked what was the matter with him (whether he was wounded), he swore dirtyly, and he began to feel sick.

The Sverdlovsk museum exhibits pistols used by the Bolsheviks: three revolvers (analogues) and a Mauser by Pyotr Ermakov. The last exhibit is a genuine weapon from which they killed royal family(there is an act of 1927, when Yermakov handed over his weapons). Another proof that this is the same weapon is a photograph of a group of party leaders at the hiding place of the remains of the royal family in Piglet Log (taken in 2014).

On it are the leaders of the Ural regional executive committee and the regional party committee (the majority were shot in 1937-38). Ermakova's Mauser lies right on the sleepers - over the heads of the murdered and buried members of the royal family, the burial place of which was never found by the "white" investigation and which only half a century later was discovered by the Ural geologist Alexander Avdonin.

At one in the morning on July 17, 1918, the former Russian Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, their five children and four servants, including a doctor, were taken to the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, where they were held in custody, where they were brutally shot by the Bolsheviks, and subsequently burned body.

The eerie scene continues to haunt us to this day, and their remains, which had lain for most of a century in nameless graves, the location of which was known only Soviet leadership are still surrounded by an aura of mystery. In 1979, enthusiastic historians discovered the remains of some members of the royal family, and in 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, their identity was confirmed using DNA analysis.

The remains of two more royal children, Alexei and Maria, were discovered in 2007 and subjected to a similar analysis. However, the ROC questioned the results of the DNA tests. The remains of Alexei and Maria were not buried, but transferred to a scientific institution. In 2015, they were again subjected to analysis.

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore recounts these events in detail in his book 'The Romanovs, 1613-1618', published this year. El Confidential has already written about her. In the Town & Country magazine, the author recalls that the official investigation into the murder of the royal family was resumed last fall, and the remains of the king and queen were exhumed. This gave rise to conflicting statements from the government and representatives of the Church, again putting this issue in the public eye.

According to Sebag, Nikolai was good-looking, and apparent weakness hid an imperious man who despised ruling class, a fierce anti-Semite who did not doubt his sacred right to power. She and Alexandra married for love, what happened then a rare occurrence. She brought to family life paranoid thinking, mystical fanaticism (just remember Rasputin) and another danger - hemophilia, which was passed on to her son, heir to the throne.

Wounds

In 1998, the reburial of the remains of the Romanovs took place in a solemn official ceremony designed to heal the wounds of Russia's past.

President Yeltsin said that political change should never again be forced. Many Orthodox again expressed their disagreement and perceived this event as an attempt by the president to impose a liberal agenda in the former USSR.

In 2000, the Orthodox Church canonized the royal family, as a result of which the relics of its members became sacred, and according to the statements of its representatives, it was necessary to conduct their reliable identification.

When Yeltsin left his post and nominated an unknown Vladimir Putin, a KGB lieutenant colonel who considered the collapse of the USSR “the biggest catastrophe of the 20th century,” the young leader began to concentrate power in his hands, put up barriers to foreign influence, help strengthen Orthodox faith and carry out aggressive foreign policy. It seemed—Sebag reflects ironically—he decided to continue the political line of the Romanovs.

Putin is a political realist, and he is moving along the path outlined by the leaders of a strong Russia: from Peter I to Stalin. These were bright personalities who opposed the international threat.

The position of Putin, who questioned the results scientific research(faint echo cold war: there were many Americans among the researchers), calmed the Church and created a breeding ground for conspiracy, nationalist and anti-Semitic hypotheses regarding the remains of the Romanovs. One of them was that Lenin and his followers, many of whom were Jews, moved the bodies to Moscow with orders to mutilate them. Was it really the king and his family? Or did someone manage to escape?

Context

How did the kings return to Russian history

Atlantico 19.08.2015

304 years of Romanov rule

Le Figaro 05/30/2016

Why both Lenin and Nicholas II are “good”

Radio Prague 14.10.2015

What did Nicholas II give the Finns?

Helsingin Sanomat 07/25/2016 During the Civil War, the Bolsheviks declared the Red Terror. They took the family away from Moscow. It was a terrible journey by train and horse-drawn carts. Tsarevich Alexei suffered from hemophilia, and some of his sisters were sexually abused on the train. Finally, they ended up in the house where their life path. It, in fact, was turned into a fortified prison and machine guns were installed around the perimeter. Be that as it may, the royal family tried to adapt to the new conditions. The eldest daughter Olga was depressed, and those who were younger played, not really understanding what was happening. Maria had an affair with one of the guards, and then the Bolsheviks replaced all the guards, tightening the rules of the internal order.

When it became obvious that the White Guards were about to take Yekaterinburg, Lenin issued an unspoken decree on the execution of the entire royal family, entrusting the execution to Yakov Yurovsky. At first it was supposed to secretly bury everyone in the nearby forests. But the assassination was poorly planned and even worse executed. Each member of the firing squad had to kill one of the victims. But when the basement of the house was filled with smoke from the shots and the screams of people being shot, many of the Romanovs were still alive. They were wounded and wept in terror.

The fact is that diamonds were sewn into the clothes of the princesses, and the bullets bounced off them, which confused the killers. The wounded were finished off with bayonets and shots to the head. One of the executioners later said that the floor was slippery with blood and brains.

scars

Having completed their work, drunken executioners robbed the corpses, loaded them onto a truck that stalled along the way. In addition, in last moment it turned out that all the bodies did not fit in the graves dug in advance for them. The dead were stripped of their clothes and burned. Then the frightened Yurovsky came up with another plan. He left the bodies in the forest and went to Yekaterinburg for acid and gasoline. For three days and nights, he brought containers with sulfuric acid and gasoline into the forest to destroy the bodies, which he decided to bury in different places to confuse those who set out to find them. No one was supposed to know about what happened. The bodies were doused with acid and gasoline, they were burned, and then buried.

Sebag wonders how 2017 will mark the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. What will happen to the royal remains? The country does not want to lose its former glory. The past is always viewed in a positive light, but the legitimacy of autocracy continues to generate controversy. New research initiated by the Russian Orthodox Church and carried out Investigative Committee, led to the re-exhumation of the bodies. Was held comparative analysis DNA with living relatives, in particular with the British Prince Philip, one of whose grandmothers was Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna Romanova. Thus, he is the great-great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas II.

The fact that the Church is still making decisions on such important issues has attracted attention in the rest of Europe, as well as the lack of openness and a chaotic series of burials, exhumations, DNA tests of various members of the royal family. Most political observers believe that Putin will make the final decision on what to do with the remains on the 100th anniversary of the revolution. Will he finally be able to reconcile the image of the revolution of 1917 with the barbaric massacre of 1918? Will he have to hold two separate events to please each side? Will the Romanovs be given royal or ecclesiastical honors like saints?

In Russian textbooks, many Russian tsars are still presented as heroes covered in glory. Gorbachev and last king The Romanovs recanted, Putin said he would never do that.

The historian claims that in his book he did not omit anything from the materials he studied on the execution of the Romanov family ... with the exception of the most disgusting details of the murder. When the bodies were taken to the forest, the two princesses groaned, and they had to be finished off. Whatever the future of the country, it will be impossible to erase this terrible episode from memory.

The question "Who shot the royal family?" in itself is immoral and can only interest lovers of "fried" and fans of conspiracy theories. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church was only interested in the identification of the remains, which is why the canonization of the royal family was carried out only in 2000 (19 years later than in the Russian Orthodox Church abroad), and all its members are numbered among the New Martyrs of Russia. At the same time, the question of who gave the order and was the executor of the execution is not exaggerated in church circles. In addition, to this day there is no exact list of the persons of the "firing" team. In the twenties and thirties of the last century, many people involved in this act of vandalism vied with each other to boast about their participation (like the anecdotal associates of V.I. Lenin, who helped him drag the log on the first subbotnik) and wrote memoirs about it. However, almost all of them were shot during the Yezhov purges of 1936-1938.

Today, almost everyone who recognizes the execution of the royal family believes that the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg was the place of execution. According to most historians, the following people were directly involved in the execution:

• member of the collegium of the Ural Regional Extraordinary Commission Ya.M. Yurovsky;
• head of the "Flying Squad" of the Ural Cheka G.P. Nikulin;
• Commissioner M.A. Medvedev;
• Ural security officer, head of the guard service P.Z. Ermakov;
• Vaganov S.P., Kabanov A.G., Medvedev P.S., Netrebin V.N., Tselms Ya.M. are considered ordinary participants in the execution.

As can be seen from the above list, there was no dominance of "Jewish Masons" or Balts (Latvian shooters) in the firing squad. Some researchers also question the number of people directly involved in the execution. The execution cellar had dimensions of 5 × 6 meters, and such a number of executioners simply would not have fit there.

Speaking about who from the top leadership gave the order for the execution, it can be said with confidence that neither V.I. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky did not know about the upcoming execution. Moreover, in early July, Lenin ordered the transfer of the entire royal family to Moscow, where it was supposed to organize a demonstrative people's trial of Nicholas II, and the “fiery tribune” L.D. Trotsky. The question of what Ya.M. knew about the upcoming execution. Sverdlov, also debatable, but not indisputable. The fact that the order was given by I.V. Stalin, let it be on the conscience of the democrats of the times of perestroika and glasnost. In those years, Joseph Stalin was not a prominent figure in the top of the Bolsheviks and most of the time he was absent from Moscow, being at the fronts.

At one time, rumors started by Ya.M. Yurovsky, that one of the participants in the execution was brought to Moscow to be shown to V.I. To Lenin and L.D. Trotsky, the alcoholized head of the last emperor. And only the burial found and the genetic examinations carried out dispelled this heresy.

According to the "Jewish" version, the immediate leader and main executor was Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky (Yankel Khaimovich Yurovsky). The "execution" team consisted mainly of foreigners: according to one version - Latvians, according to another - Chinese. Moreover, the execution itself was organized as a ritual action. A rabbi was invited to it, who was responsible for the religious correctness of the ceremony. The walls of the execution cellar were painted with Kabbalistic signs. However, after, on the orders of the First Secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Party Committee B.N. Yeltsin, the house of special maintenance (Ipatiev House) was demolished in 1977, you can invent and invent anything.

In all these theories, it is not clear why the relatives of Emperor Nicholas II are neither "cousin" Willy (German Kaiser Wilhelm II), nor the King of England, cousin Russian autocrat George V - did not insist to the Provisional Government on granting political asylum to the royal family. And here there are many conspiracy theories why neither the Entente, nor Germany and Austria-Hungary needed the Romanov dynasty. However, this is a topic for a separate study.

In addition, there is a group of historians-researchers of the question "Who shot the royal family?", who believe that there was no execution, but only its imitation. And no genetic examinations and skull reconstructions can convince them otherwise.