When the royal family was executed. The murder of the royal family and members of the dynasty

Who refused to shoot the king and his family? What did Nicholas II say when he heard the sentence of execution? Who wanted to kidnap the Romanovs from the Ipatiev House? On the anniversary of the execution of the royal family, we remind you of the most important facts about this tragedy

Photo: RIA Novosti / Maya Shelkovnikova

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to various recollections, he said:

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

"Nikolai Alexandrovich! Attempts by your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And now, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic ... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and cuts the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission of ending the Romanovs' house"(according to the memoirs of M. Medvedev (Kudrin))

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Agree: it would be foolish to shoot the tsar without first squeezing honestly earned money from him from the capsules. So they didn't shoot him. However, it was not immediately possible to get money, because it was too turbulent time ...

Regularly, by the middle of summer of each year, loud lamentation is resumed for Tsar Nicholas II, who was killed for nothing, whom Christians also “canonized as saints” in 2000. Here is Comrade. Starikov, exactly on July 17, once again threw "firewood" into the furnace of emotional lamentations about nothing. I had not been interested in this issue before, and would not have paid attention to another dummy, BUT ... At the last meeting with readers in his life, Academician Nikolai Levashov just mentioned that in the 30s Stalin met with Nicholas II and asked him money to prepare for a future war. Here is how Nikolai Goryushin writes about this in his report “There are prophets in our fatherland too!” about this meeting with readers:

“... In this regard, information related to the tragic fate of the last Emperor of the Russian Empire Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov and his family turned out to be amazing ... In August 1917, he and his family were sent to the last capital of the Slavic-Aryan Empire, the city of Tobolsk. The choice of this city was not accidental, since the highest degrees of Freemasonry are aware of the great past of the Russian people. The exile to Tobolsk was a kind of mockery of the Romanov dynasty, which in 1775 defeated the troops of the Slavic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartaria), and later this event was called the suppression of the peasant revolt of Emelyan Pugachev ... In July 1918, Jacob Schiff gives the command to one of his trusted persons in the leadership of the Bolsheviks to Yakov Sverdlov for the ritual murder of the royal family. Sverdlov, after consulting with Lenin, orders the commandant of the Ipatiev house, Chekist Yakov Yurovsky, to carry out the plan. According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot.

At the meeting, Nikolai Levashov said that, in fact, Nicholas II and his family were not shot! This statement immediately raises many questions. I decided to look into them. Many works have been written on this topic, and the picture of the execution, the testimony of witnesses, look plausible at first glance. The facts obtained by the investigator A.F. do not fit into the logical chain. Kirsta, who joined the investigation in August 1918. During the investigation, he interviewed Dr. P.I. Utkin, who said that at the end of October 1918 he was invited to the building occupied by the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution to provide medical assistance. The victim was a young girl, presumably 22 years old, with a cut lip and a tumor under her eye. To the question "who is she?" the girl replied that she was "the daughter of the Sovereign Anastasia." During the course of the investigation, investigator Kirsta did not find the corpses of the royal family in Ganina Yama. Soon, Kirsta found numerous witnesses who told him during interrogations that in September 1918, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. And the witness Samoilov stated from the words of his neighbor, the guard of the house of Ipatiev Varakushev, that there was no execution, the royal family was loaded into a wagon and taken away.

After receiving these data, A.F. Kirsta is removed from the case and ordered to hand over all materials to investigator A.S. Sokolov. Nikolai Levashov said that the motive for saving the life of the Tsar and his family was the desire of the Bolsheviks, contrary to the orders of their masters, to take possession of the hidden wealth of the Romanov dynasty, the location of which Nikolai Alexandrovich certainly knew. Soon the organizers of the execution in 1919, Sverdlov, die in 1924, Lenin. Nikolai Viktorovich clarified that Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR ... "

If this were the first lie of comrade. Starikov, it would be quite possible to think that a person knows little so far and was simply mistaken. But Starikov is the author of several very good books and is very savvy in matters of recent Russian history. From this follows the obvious conclusion that he is deliberately disingenuous. I won’t write about the reasons for this lie here, although they lie right on the surface ... I’d rather give a few more evidence that the royal family was not shot in July 1918, and the rumor about the execution was most likely launched for the “report” to customers - Schiff and other comrades who financed the coup d'état in Russia in 1917 ...

Nicholas II met with Stalin?

There are suggestions that Nicholas II was not shot, and the entire female half of the royal family was taken to Germany. But the documents are still classified...

For me, this story began in November 1983. I then worked as a photojournalist for a French agency and was sent to the summit of heads of state and government in Venice. There I accidentally met an Italian colleague who, having learned that I was Russian, showed me a newspaper (I think it was La Repubblica) dated the day of our meeting. In the article, which the Italian drew my attention to, it was about the fact that in Rome, at a very old age, a certain nun, Sister Pascalina, died. I later learned that this woman held an important position in the Vatican hierarchy under Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), but that is not the point.

The Secret of the Iron Lady of the Vatican

This sister Pascalina, who earned the honorary nickname of the “iron lady” of the Vatican, before her death called a notary with two witnesses and, in their presence, dictated information that she did not want to take with her to the grave: one of the daughters of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, Olga, was not shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, 1918, but lived a long life and was buried in a cemetery in the village of Marcotte in northern Italy.

After the summit, I went to this village with an Italian friend, who was both a driver and an interpreter for me. We found the cemetery and this grave. On the plate was written in German: "Olga Nikolaevna, the eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov" - and the dates of life: "1895-1976". We talked with the cemetery watchman and his wife: they, like all the villagers, perfectly remembered Olga Nikolaevna, knew who she was, and were sure that the Russian Grand Duchess was under the protection of the Vatican.

This strange find interested me greatly, and I decided to find out for myself all the circumstances of the execution. And in general, was he?

I have every reason to believe that there was no execution. On the night of July 16-17, all the Bolsheviks and their sympathizers left by rail for Perm. The next morning, leaflets were pasted around Yekaterinburg with the message that the royal family had been taken away from the city - and so it was. Soon the whites occupied the city. Naturally, an investigative commission was formed "on the case of the disappearance of Tsar Nicholas II, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses", which did not find any convincing traces of execution.

Investigator Sergeev in 1919 said in an interview with an American newspaper: “I don’t think that everyone was executed here - both the tsar and his family. In my opinion, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses were not executed in the Ipatiev House. This conclusion did not suit Admiral Kolchak, who by that time had already proclaimed himself "the supreme ruler of Russia." And really, why does the “supreme” need some kind of emperor? Kolchak ordered a second investigative team to be assembled, which got to the bottom of the fact that in September 1918 the Empress and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. Only the third investigator, Nikolai Sokolov (conducted the case from February to May 1919), turned out to be more understanding and issued a well-known conclusion that the whole family was shot, the corpses were dismembered and burned at the stake. "The parts that did not succumb to the action of fire," Sokolov wrote, "were destroyed with the help of sulfuric acid."

What, in this case, was buried in 1998 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? Let me remind you that soon after the start of perestroika, some skeletons were found on the Piglet Log near Yekaterinburg. In 1998, they were solemnly reburied in the family tomb of the Romanovs, after numerous genetic examinations had been carried out before that. Moreover, the secular power of Russia in the person of President Boris Yeltsin acted as a guarantor of the authenticity of the royal remains. But the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the bones as the remains of the royal family.

But let's go back to the Civil War. According to my information, the royal family was divided in Perm. The path of the female part lay in Germany, while the men - Nikolai Romanov himself and Tsarevich Alexei - were left in Russia. Father and son were kept near Serpukhov for a long time at the former dacha of the merchant Konshin. Later, in the reports of the NKVD, this place was known as "Object No. 17". Most likely, the prince died in 1920 from hemophilia. I can't say anything about the fate of the last Russian emperor. Except for one thing: in the 30s, Stalin visited Object No. 17 twice. Does this mean that in those years Nicholas II was still alive?

The men were held hostage

To understand why such incredible events from the point of view of a person of the 21st century became possible and to find out who needed them, you will have to go back to 1918 again. Do you remember from the school history course about the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk? Yes, on March 3, in Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty was concluded between Soviet Russia on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey on the other. Russia lost Poland, Finland, the Baltic States and part of Belarus. But it was not because of this that Lenin called the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk “humiliating” and “obscene.” By the way, the full text of the treaty has not yet been published either in the East or in the West. I believe that because of the secret conditions in it. Probably, the Kaiser, who was a relative of Empress Maria Feodorovna, demanded that all the women of the royal family be transferred to Germany. The girls had no right to the Russian throne and, therefore, could not threaten the Bolsheviks in any way. The men, on the other hand, remained hostages - as guarantors that the German army would not go further east than it was written in the peace treaty.

What happened next? How was the fate of women exported to the West? Was their silence a necessary condition for their immunity? Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers.

Interview with Vladimir Sychev on the Romanov case

In June 1987 I was in Venice with the French press accompanying François Mitterrand to the G7 summit. During the breaks between pools, an Italian journalist approached me and asked me something in French. Realizing from my accent that I was not French, he looked at my French accreditation and asked where I was from. “Russian,” I replied. – Is that how? my interlocutor was surprised. Under his arm, he held an Italian newspaper, from where he translated a huge, half-page article.

Sister Pascalina dies in a private clinic in Switzerland. She was known throughout the Catholic world, because. passed with the future Pope Pius XXII from 1917, when he was still Cardinal Pacelli in Munich (Bavaria), until his death in the Vatican in 1958. She had such a strong influence on him that he entrusted the entire administration of the Vatican to her, and when the cardinals asked for an audience with the Pope, she decided who was worthy of such an audience and who was not. This is a short retelling of a large article, the meaning of which was that we had to believe the phrase uttered at the end and not by a mere mortal. Sister Pascalina asked for a lawyer and witnesses, because she did not want to take the secret of her life to the grave. When they arrived, she only said that the woman buried in the village of Morcote, not far from Lake Maggiore, was indeed the daughter of the Russian Tsar - Olga!

I convinced my Italian colleague that this was a gift from Fate and that it was useless to resist it. Having learned that he was from Milan, I told him that I would not fly back to Paris on the presidential press plane, but we would go to this village for half a day. We went there after the summit. It turned out that this was no longer Italy, but Switzerland, but we quickly found a village, a cemetery and a cemetery watchman who led us to the grave. On the gravestone there is a photograph of an elderly woman and an inscription in German: Olga Nikolaevna (without a surname), the eldest daughter of Nikolai Romanov, Tsar of Russia, and dates of life - 1885-1976 !!!

The Italian journalist was an excellent translator for me, but he clearly did not want to stay there for the whole day. I had to ask questions.

When did she move in here? – In 1948.

- She said that she was the daughter of the Russian Tsar? “Of course, and the whole village knew about it.

Did it get into the press? - Yes.

- How did the other Romanovs react to this? Did they sue? - Served.

And she lost? Yes, I lost.

In this case, she had to pay the opposing party's legal costs. - She paid.

- She worked? - Not.

Where does she get the money from? “Yes, the whole village knew that the Vatican was keeping her!”

The ring is closed. I went to Paris and began to look for what is known on this issue ... And quickly came across a book by two English journalists.

Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published in 1979 the book "Dossier on the Tsar" ("The Romanov Case, or the Execution That Wasn't"). They began with the fact that if the secrecy stamp is removed from state archives after 60 years, then in 1978 60 years from the date of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles expire, and you can “dig up” something there by looking into the declassified archives. That is, at first there was an idea just to look ... And they very quickly got to the telegrams of the British ambassador to their Foreign Ministry that the royal family had been taken from Yekaterinburg to Perm. There is no need to explain to professionals from the BBC that this is a sensation. They rushed to Berlin.

It quickly became clear that the Whites, having entered Yekaterinburg on July 25, immediately appointed an investigator to investigate the execution of the royal family. Nikolai Sokolov, whose book everyone still refers to, is the third investigator who received the case only at the end of February 1919! Then a simple question arises: who were the first two and what did they report to the authorities? So, the first investigator named Nametkin, appointed by Kolchak, having worked for three months and declaring that he is a professional, is a simple matter, and he does not need additional time (and the Whites were advancing and had no doubts about their victory at that time - i.e. all the time is yours, don’t rush, work!), puts a report on the table that there was no execution, but there was a staged execution. Kolchak this report - under the cloth and appoints a second investigator by the name of Sergeev. He also works for three months and at the end of February gives Kolchak the same report with the same words (“I am a professional, it’s a simple matter, no extra time is needed, there was no execution – there was a staged execution”).

Here it is necessary to explain and remind that it was the Whites who overthrew the tsar, and not the Reds, and they sent him into exile in Siberia! Lenin in these February days was in Zurich. Whatever ordinary soldiers say, the white elite are not monarchists, but republicans. And Kolchak did not need a living tsar. I advise those who have doubts to read Trotsky's diaries, where he writes that "if the whites put up any tsar - even a peasant one - we would not have lasted even two weeks"! These are the words of the Supreme Commander of the Red Army and the ideologist of the Red Terror!!! Please believe.

Therefore, Kolchak already puts "his" investigator Nikolai Sokolov and gives him a task. And Nikolai Sokolov also works for only three months - but for a different reason. The Reds entered Yekaterinburg in May, and he retreated along with the Whites. He took the archives, but what did he write?

1. He did not find the bodies, and for the police of any country in any system “no bodies - no murder” is a disappearance! After all, when arresting serial killers, the police demand to show where the corpses are hidden!!! You can say whatever you want, even at yourself, and the investigator needs material evidence!

And Nikolai Sokolov "hung the first noodles on his ears": "thrown into the mine, filled with acid." Now they prefer to forget this phrase, but we heard it until 1998! And for some reason no one ever doubted. Is it possible to flood the mine with acid? But acid is not enough! In the local history museum of Yekaterinburg, where the director Avdonin (the same, one of the three who “accidentally” found bones on the Starokotlyakovskaya road, cleared to them by three investigators in 1918-19), hangs a certificate about those soldiers on the truck that they had 78 liters of gasoline (not acid). In July, in the Siberian taiga, having 78 liters of gasoline, you can burn the entire Moscow zoo! No, they went back and forth, first they threw it into the mine, poured it with acid, and then they took it out and hid it under the sleepers ...

By the way, on the night of the "execution" from July 16 to July 17, 1918, a huge train with the entire local Red Army, the local Central Committee and the local Cheka left Yekaterinburg for Perm. The Whites entered on the eighth day, and Yurovsky, Beloborodov and his comrades shifted the responsibility to two soldiers? The inconsistency, - tea, they did not deal with a peasant revolt. And if they shot at their own discretion, they could have done it a month earlier.

2. The second "noodle" of Nikolai Sokolov - he describes the basement of the Ipatievsky house, publishes photographs showing that bullets are in the walls and in the ceiling (apparently, they do this when staging an execution). Conclusion - women's corsets were stuffed with diamonds, and the bullets ricocheted! So, like this: the king from the throne and into exile in Siberia. Money in England and Switzerland, and they sew diamonds into corsets to sell to peasants in the market? Well well!

3. In the same book by Nikolai Sokolov, the same basement in the same Ipatiev house is described, where clothes from each member of the imperial family and hair from each head are in the fireplace. Were they sheared and changed (undressed??) before being shot? Not at all - they were taken out by the same train on that very “night of execution”, but they cut their hair and changed clothes so that no one would recognize them there.

Tom Magold and Anthony Summers intuitively realized that the key to this intriguing detective should be sought in the Brest Peace Treaty. And they began to look for the original text. And what?? With all the removal of secrets after 60 years, there is no such official document anywhere! It is not in the declassified archives of London or Berlin. They searched everywhere - and everywhere they found only quotes, but nowhere could they find the full text! And they came to the conclusion that the Kaiser demanded the extradition of women from Lenin. The tsar's wife is a relative of the Kaiser, the daughters are German citizens and did not have the right to the throne, and besides, the Kaiser at that moment could crush Lenin like a bug! And here Lenin's words that "the world is humiliating and obscene, but it must be signed," and the July attempt at a coup d'état of the Socialist-Revolutionaries with Dzerzhinsky, who joined them at the Bolshoi Theater, take on a completely different look.

Officially, we were taught that the Trotsky treaty was signed only on the second attempt and only after the start of the offensive of the German army, when it became clear to everyone that the Republic of Soviets could not resist. If there is simply no army, what is “humiliating and obscene” here? Nothing. But if it is necessary to hand over all the women of the royal family, and even to the Germans, and even during the First World War, then ideologically everything is in its place, and the words are read correctly. What Lenin did, and the entire ladies' section was handed over to the Germans in Kyiv. And immediately the murder of the German ambassador Mirbach in Moscow and the German consul in Kyiv makes sense.

"Dossier on the Tsar" is a fascinating investigation into one cunningly tangled intrigue of world history. The book was published in 1979, so the words of Sister Pascalina in 1983 about Olga's grave could not get into it. And if there were no new facts, then simply retelling someone else's book here would not make sense ...

The Romanovs were the first and only royal family in Russia. Nicholas II had five children: 4 daughters (Anastasia, Olga, Tatyana, Maria) and son Alexei.

The Romanovs ruled the Russian Empire from 1613 to 1917, which is already three hundred years! This family was truly powerful and deservedly received the title of dynasty.

The Romanov family was numerous, there were no problems with the successors to the throne. In 1918, after the Bolsheviks shot the emperor, his wife and children, a large number of impostors appeared. Rumors spread that on that very night in Yekaterinburg, one of them still survived.

And today, many believe that one of the children could be saved and that their offspring can live among us.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova

After the massacre of the imperial family, many believed that Anastasia managed to escape

Anastasia was the youngest daughter of Nicholas. In 1918, when the Romanovs were shot, the remains of Anastasia were not found in the family's burial place and rumors spread that the young princess had survived.

People around the world have reincarnated as Anastasia. One of the most prominent imposters was Anna Anderson. She seems to be from Poland.

Anna imitated Anastasia in her behavior, and rumors that Anastasia was alive spread quickly enough. Many also tried to imitate her sisters and brother. People around the world tried to cheat, but most of the doubles were in Russia.

Many believed that the children of Nicholas II survived. But even after the burial of the Romanov family was found, scientists could not identify the remains of Anastasia. Most historians still cannot confirm that the Bolsheviks killed Anastasia.

Later, a secret burial was found, in which the remains of the young princess were found, and forensic experts were able to prove that she died along with the rest of the family in 1918. Her remains were reburied in 1998.

DNA

Scientists were able to compare the DNA of the found remains and modern followers of the royal family

Many people believed that the Bolsheviks buried the Romanovs in various places in the Sverdlovsk region. In addition, many were convinced that two of the children were able to escape.

There was a theory that Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria were able to escape from the place of the terrible execution. In 1976, scientists attacked the trail with the remains of the Romanovs. In 1991, when the era of communism was over, the researchers were able to obtain government permission to open the burial of the Romanovs, the same one left by the Bolsheviks.

But scientists needed DNA analysis to confirm the theory. They asked Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent to provide DNA samples for comparison with those of the royal couple. Forensic experts confirmed that the DNA does indeed belong to the Romanovs. As a result of this study, it was possible to confirm that the Bolsheviks buried Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria separately from the rest.

Discovered remains of members of the royal family

Some people devoted their free time to searching for traces of the real burial place of the family.

In 2007, Sergei Plotnikov, one of the founders of the amateur historical group, made an amazing discovery. His group was looking for any facts related to the royal family.

In his spare time, Sergei was engaged in searching for the remains of the Romanovs in the alleged place of the first burial. And one day he was lucky, he stumbled upon something solid and began to dig.

To his surprise, he found several fragments of the bones of the pelvis and skull. After the examination, it was found that these bones belong to the children of Nicholas II.

Evidence of violent acts in murder

Few people know that the methods of killing family members differed from each other.

After an analysis of the bones of Alexei and Mary, it was found that the bones were badly damaged, but in a different way than the bones of the emperor himself.

Traces of bullets were found on the remains of Nikolai, which means that the children were killed in a different way. The rest of the family also suffered in their own way.

Scientists managed to establish that Alexei and Maria were doused with acid, and they died from burns. Despite the fact that these two children were buried separately from the rest of the family, they suffered no less.

The results of the analysis of the remains

There was a lot of confusion around the bones of the Romanovs, but in the end, scientists still managed to establish their belonging to the family.

Archaeologists found 9 skulls, teeth, bullets of various calibers, fabric from clothes and wires from a wooden box. The remains were found to be those of a boy and a woman, estimated to be between 10 and 23 years old.

The probability that the boy was Tsarevich Alexei, and the girl Princess Maria is quite high. In addition, there were theories that the government managed to find the place where the bones of the Romanovs were stored. There were rumors that the remains were found as early as 1979, but the government kept this information a secret.

Lack of money

One of the research groups was very close to the truth, but they soon ran out of money.

In 1990, another group of archaeologists decided to excavate, hoping that they would be able to find some more traces of the location of the remains of the Romanovs.

After a few days or even weeks, they dug up a field the size of a football field, but never completed the study, as they ran out of money. Surprisingly, Sergei Plotnikov found bone fragments in this very area.

Doubt

Due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church demanded more and more confirmation of the authenticity of the bones of the Romanovs, the reburial was postponed several times

The Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the fact that the bones really belonged to the Romanov family. The Church demanded more evidence that these very remains were indeed found in the burial of the royal family in Yekaterinburg.

The successors of the Romanov family supported the Russian Orthodox Church, demanding additional research and confirmation that the bones really belong to the children of Nicholas II.

The reburial of the family was postponed many times, as the ROC each time questioned the correctness of the DNA analysis and the belonging of the bones to the Romanov family. The church asked forensic experts to conduct additional examination. After scientists finally managed to convince the church that the remains really belonged to the royal family, the Russian Orthodox Church planned a reburial.

Modern successors of the genus

The Bolsheviks eliminated the main part of the imperial family, but their distant relatives are still alive

The successors of the family tree of the Romanov dynasty live among us. One of the heirs of royal genes is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and he provided his DNA for research. Prince Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, grand-niece of Princess Alexandra, and great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.

Another relative who helped with DNA identification is Prince Michael of Kent. His grandmother was a cousin of Nicholas II.

There are eight more successors of this family: Hugh Grosvenor, Constantine II, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, Olga Andreevna Romanova, Francis Alexander Matthew, Nicoletta Romanova, Rostislav Romanov. But these relatives did not provide their DNA for analysis, as Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent were recognized as the closest relatives.

The Bolsheviks tried to hide the evidence

Of course the Bolsheviks tried to cover up the traces of their crime

The Bolsheviks executed the royal family in Yekaterinburg, and they had to somehow hide the evidence of the crime.

There are two theories about how the Bolsheviks killed children. According to the first version, they first shot Nikolai, and then put his daughters in the mine, where no one could find them. The Bolsheviks tried to blow up the mine, but their plan failed, so they decided to douse the children with acid and burn them.

According to the second version, the Bolsheviks wanted to cremate the bodies of the murdered Alexei and Maria. After several studies, scientists and forensic experts concluded that the cremation of the bodies did not work.

To cremate a human body, you need a very high temperature, and the Bolsheviks were in the forest, and they did not have the opportunity to create the necessary conditions. After unsuccessful attempts at cremation, they nevertheless decided to bury the bodies, but divided the family into two graves.

The fact that the family was not buried together explains why not all family members were initially discovered. This also refutes the theory that Alexei and Maria managed to escape.

The farewell ceremony lasted three days.

By decision of the Russian Orthodox Church, the remains of the Romanovs were buried in one of the churches of St. Petersburg

The secret of the Romanov dynasty rests with their remains in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. After numerous studies, scientists still agreed that the remains belong to Nicholas and his family.

The last farewell ceremony took place in the Orthodox Church and lasted three days. During the funeral procession, many still questioned the authenticity of the remains. But scientists claim that the bones are 97% identical to the DNA of members of the royal family.

In Russia, this ceremony was given special significance. Residents of fifty countries around the world watched the Romanov family go to rest. It took more than 80 years to debunk the myths about the family of the last emperor of the Russian Empire. Together with the completion of the funeral procession, an entire era has gone into the past.

Almost a hundred years have passed since that terrible night when the Russian Empire ceased to exist forever. Until now, none of the historians can state unequivocally what happened that night and whether any of the family members survived. Most likely, the secret of this family will remain undisclosed, and we can only assume what really happened.

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

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

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

Research on genetic identification is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the ROC. In early July 2017, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsky, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents were discovered. For example, Sverdlov's order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, according to the results of recent research, forensic scientists confirmed that the remains of the king and queen belong to them, since a trace was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a trace from a saber blow he received when visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her by the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins.

Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign's skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of the alleged remains of Nikolai by periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist, whom Nikolai turned to, remained. In addition, the fact that the growth of the skeleton of "Princess Anastasia" is 13 centimeters larger than her lifetime growth has not yet been found. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church ... Shevkunov did not say a word about genetic examination, and this despite the fact that the genetic studies of 2003, conducted by Russian and American specialists, showed that the genome of the body of the alleged empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna do not match , which means no relationship.

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

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

Worth the fight for that kind of money

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

This “golden” issue was once proposed by two well-known Russian oligarchs – Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky. But Yeltsin "did not understand" them, and now, apparently, that very "golden" time has come ... And now this gold is remembered more and more often - though not at the state level.

For this gold they kill, fight and make fortunes on it

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

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

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

There is a long-term study, unfortunately, by the now deceased professor Vladlen Sirotkin (MGIMO), “Foreign Gold of Russia” (M., 2000), where the gold and other holdings of the Romanov family accumulated in the accounts of Western banks are also estimated at an amount of at least 400 billion dollars, and together with investments - more than 2 trillion dollars! In the absence of heirs from the Romanovs, the closest relatives turn out to be members of the English royal family ... These are whose interests may be the background of many events of the XIX-XXI centuries ... By the way, it is not clear (or, on the contrary, it is clear) for what reasons the royal house of England refused the family three times Romanovs in the shelter. The first time in 1916, at the apartment of Maxim Gorky, an escape was planned - the rescue of the Romanovs by abduction and the internment of the royal couple during their visit to an English warship, then sent to Great Britain. The second was Kerensky's request, which was also rejected. Then they did not accept the request of the Bolsheviks. And this despite the fact that the mothers of George V and Nicholas II were sisters. In the surviving correspondence, Nicholas II and George V call each other "Cousin Nicky" and "Cousin Georgie" - they were cousins ​​with an age difference of less than three years, and in their youth these guys spent a lot of time together and were very similar in appearance. As for the queen, her mother, Princess Alice, was the eldest and beloved daughter of the English Queen Victoria. At that time, 440 tons of gold from the gold reserves of Russia and 5.5 tons of personal gold of Nicholas II were in England as collateral for military loans. Now think about it: if the royal family died, then to whom would the gold go? Close relatives! Isn't that the reason why Cousin Georgie was denied admission to Cousin Nicky's family? To get gold, its owners had to die. Officially. And now all this must be connected with the burial of the royal family, which will officially testify that the owners of untold wealth are dead.

Versions of life after death

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

On this topic

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

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

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

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

WHO GIVED THE ORDER?

Until now, historians cannot say for sure who exactly gave the order to execute the royal family. According to one version, such a decision was made by Sverdlov and Lenin. According to another, they wanted to start at least bring Nicholas II to Moscow in order to judge in an official setting. Another version says that the party leaders did not want to kill the Romanovs at all - the Ural Bolsheviks made the decision to shoot them on their own, without consulting with their superiors.

During the Civil War, confusion reigned, and the local branches of the party had broad independence, - explains Alexander Ladygin, teacher of Russian history at the Institute of UrFU. - Local Bolsheviks advocated a world revolution and were very critical of Lenin. In addition, during this period, an active offensive of the White Czech corps against Yekaterinburg took place, and the Ural Bolsheviks believed that it was unacceptable to leave such an important propaganda figure as the former tsar to the enemy.

It is also not completely known how many people participated in the execution. Some "contemporaries" claimed that 12 people with revolvers were selected. Others that there were far fewer of them.

The identities of only five participants in the murder are known for certain. These are the commandant of the House of Special Purpose Yakov Yurovsky, his assistant Grigory Nikulin, military commissar Pyotr Yermakov, head of the house guard Pavel Medvedev and member of the Cheka Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin.

Yurovsky fired the first shot. This served as a signal to the rest of the security officers, - says Nikolai Neuimin, head of the department of the history of the Romanov dynasty of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. - Everyone was shooting at Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. Yurovsky then gave the command to cease fire, as one of the Bolsheviks nearly had his finger blown off by indiscriminate firing. All the Grand Duchesses were still alive at that time. They began to beat them. Alexei was one of the last to be killed, as he was in a faint. When the Bolsheviks began to carry out the bodies, Anastasia suddenly came to life, and she had to be beaten with bayonets.

Many participants in the murder of the royal family have preserved written memories of that night, which, by the way, do not match in all details. So, for example, Peter Ermakov stated that it was he who led the execution. Although other sources claim that he was just an ordinary performer. Probably, in this way, the participants in the murder wanted to curry favor with the new leadership of the country. It didn't help everyone though.

YERMAKOV LECTURED ON THE MURDER OF THE Tsar

The grave of Pyotr Ermakov is located almost in the very center of Yekaterinburg - at the Ivanovo cemetery. A tombstone with a large five-pointed star stands literally three steps from the grave of the Ural storyteller Pavel Petrovich Bazhov. After the end of the Civil War, Ermakov worked as a law enforcement officer, first in Omsk, then in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. And in 1927 he achieved promotion to the head of one of the Ural prisons. Many times Yermakov met with collectives of workers to talk about how the royal family was killed. He was encouraged many times. In 1930, the party bureau awarded him a browning, and a year later, Ermakov was given the title of honorary shock worker and was rewarded with a diploma for completing the five-year plan in three years. However, not everyone treated him favorably. According to rumors, when Marshal Zhukov headed the Ural Military District, Pyotr Yermakov met with him at one of the solemn meetings. As a sign of greeting, he extended his hand to Georgy Konstantinovich, but he refused to shake it, saying: “I don’t shake hands with executioners!”

Ermakov lived quietly until the age of 68. And in the 1960s, one of the streets of Sverdlovsk was renamed in his honor. True, after the collapse of the USSR, the name was changed again.

Pyotr Ermakov was only a performer. Maybe this is one of the reasons that he escaped repression. Ermakov never held major leadership positions. His highest appointment is the inspector of places of detention. No one had any questions for him, - says Alexander Ladygin. - But over the past two years, the monument to Pyotr Ermakov has been subjected to acts of vandalism three times. A year ago, during the Royal Days, we cleaned it. But today he is back in color.

YUROVSKY DIED FROM STOMACH PROBLEMS

After the execution of the royal family, Yakov Yurovsky managed to work in the Moscow City Council, in the Cheka of the Vyatka province and the chairman of the provincial Cheka in Yekaterinburg. However, in 1920 he began to have stomach problems and moved to Moscow for treatment. During the capital stage of his life, Yurovsky changed more than one job. At first he was the manager of the organizational instructor department, then he worked in the gold department at the People's Commissariat of Finance, from where he later moved to the position of deputy director of the Bogatyr plant, which produced galoshes. Until the 1930s, Yurovsky changed several more leadership positions and even managed to work as the director of the State Polytechnic Museum. And in 1933 he retired and died five years later in the Kremlin hospital from a perforated stomach ulcer.

The ashes of Yurovsky were buried in the church of the Donskoy Monastery of Seraphim of Sarov in Moscow, Nikolai Neuimin notes. - In the early 20s, the first crematorium in the USSR was opened there, in which they even published a magazine that promoted the cremation of Soviet citizens as an alternative to pre-revolutionary burials. And there, on one of the shelves, there were urns with the ashes of Yurovsky and his wife.

MEDVEDEV-KUDRIN BELIEVED THE BROWNING FROM WHICH KILLED THE MONARCH TO KHRUSHCHEV

After the Civil War, the assistant commandant of the Ipatiev House, Grigory Nikulin, worked for two years as the head of the criminal investigation department in Moscow, and then got a job at the Moscow Water Supply Station, also in a senior position. He lived to be 71 years old.

Interestingly, Grigory Nikulin was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. His grave is next to the grave of Boris Yeltsin, they say in the regional museum of local lore. - And 30 meters from him, next to the grave of a friend of the poet Mayakovsky, lies another regicide - Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin.

The latter, by the way, after the execution of the royal family lived for another 46 years. In 1938, he took a leading position in the NKVD of the USSR and rose to the rank of colonel. He was buried with military honors on January 15, 1964. In his will, Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin asked his son to give Khrushchev the Browning, from which the royal family was killed, and to give Fidel Castro a Colt, which the regicide used in 1919.