home · On a note · The city where the royal family was shot. The last royal family. The murder of the royal family: causes and consequences. Who needed the death of the royal family

The city where the royal family was shot. The last royal family. The murder of the royal family: causes and consequences. Who needed the death of the royal family

Nicholas II is the last Russian emperor. He took the Russian throne at the age of 27. In addition to the Russian crown, the emperor also inherited a huge country, torn apart by contradictions and all kinds of conflicts. A difficult reign awaited him. The second half of Nikolai Alexandrovich’s life took a very difficult and long-suffering turn, the result of which was the execution of the Romanov family, which, in turn, meant the end of their reign.

Dear Nicky

Niki (that was the name of Nicholas at home) was born in 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. In honor of his birth, 101 gun salvos were fired in the northern capital. At the christening, the future emperor was presented with the highest Russian awards. His mother - Maria Fedorovna - from the very early childhood instilled in her children religiosity, modesty, courtesy, and good manners. In addition, she did not allow Nicky to forget for a minute that he was the future monarch.

Nikolai Alexandrovich sufficiently heeded her demands, having learned the lessons of education perfectly. The future emperor was always distinguished by tact, modesty and good manners. He was surrounded by love from his relatives. They called him "sweet Nicky."

Military career

At a young age, the Tsarevich began to notice a great desire for military affairs. Nikolai eagerly took part in all parades and shows, and in camp gatherings. He strictly observed the military regulations. It is curious that his military career began at... 5 years old! Soon the crown prince received the rank of second lieutenant, and a year later he was appointed ataman in the Cossack troops.

At the age of 16, the Tsarevich took an oath of “allegiance to the Fatherland and the Throne.” Served in and rose to the rank of colonel. This rank was his last military career, since, as emperor, Nicholas II believed that he did not have “any quiet or quiet right” to independently assign military ranks.

Accession to the throne

Nikolai Alexandrovich took the Russian throne at the age of 27. In addition to the Russian crown, the emperor also inherited a huge country, torn apart by contradictions and all kinds of conflicts.

Emperor's Coronation

It took place in the Assumption Cathedral (in Moscow). During the ceremony, when Nicholas approached the altar, the chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called flew off his right shoulder and fell to the floor. Everyone present at the ceremony at that moment unanimously perceived this as a bad omen.

Tragedy on Khodynka Field

The execution of the Romanov family is perceived differently by everyone today. Many believe that the beginning of the “royal persecution” began precisely in holidays on the occasion of the coronation of the emperor, when one of the most terrible stampedes in history occurred on the Khodynka field. More than half a thousand (!) people died and were injured in it! Later, significant sums were paid from the imperial treasury to the families of the victims. Despite the Khodynka tragedy, the planned ball took place in the evening of the same day.

This event caused many people to speak of Nicholas II as a heartless and cruel tsar.

Nicholas II's mistake

The emperor understood that something urgently needed to be changed in government. Historians say this is why he declared war on Japan. It was 1904. Nikolai Alexandrovich seriously hoped to win quickly, thereby stirring up patriotism among Russians. This became his fatal mistake... Russia was forced to suffer a shameful defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, losing such lands as Southern and Far Sakhalin, as well as the Port Arthur fortress.

Family

Shortly before the execution of the Romanov family, Emperor Nicholas II got married to his only beloved, the German princess Alice of Hesse (Alexandra Fedorovna). The wedding ceremony took place in 1894 in the Winter Palace. Throughout his life, Nikolai and his wife remained in a warm, tender and touching relationship. Only death separated them. They died together. But more on that later.

Right on time Russo-Japanese War The heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, was born into the emperor's family. This is the first boy; before that, Nikolai had four girls! In honor of this, a salvo of 300 guns was fired. But doctors soon determined that the boy was suffering from an incurable disease - hemophilia (incoagulability of blood). In other words, the crown prince could bleed even from a cut on his finger and die.

"Bloody Sunday" and the First World War

After the shameful defeat in the war, unrest and protests began to arise throughout the country. The people demanded the overthrow of the monarchy. Dissatisfaction with Nicholas II grew every hour. On Sunday afternoon, January 9, 1905, crowds of people came to demand that their complaints about the terrible and hard life be accepted. At this time, the emperor and his family were not in Winter. They were vacationing in Tsarskoye Selo. The troops stationed in St. Petersburg, without the order of the emperor, opened fire on the civilian population. Everyone died: women, old people and children... Along with them, the people’s faith in their king was killed forever! On that “Bloody Sunday,” 130 people were shot and several hundred were wounded.

The emperor was very shocked by the tragedy that happened. Now nothing and no one could calm public discontent with the entire royal family. Unrest and rallies began throughout Russia. In addition, Russia entered the First world war, which Germany announced to her. The fact is that in 1914 hostilities began between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, and Russia decided to defend the small Slavic state, for which it was called “to a duel” by Germany. The country was simply fading away before our eyes, everything was going to hell. Nikolai did not yet know that the price for all this would be execution royal family Romanovs!

Abdication

The First World War dragged on for long years. The army and the country were extremely dissatisfied with such a vile tsarist regime. Among the people in the northern capital, imperial power has actually lost its power. A Provisional Government was created (in Petrograd), which included the Tsar’s enemies - Guchkov, Kerensky and Milyukov. The Tsar was told about everything that was happening in the country in general and in the capital in particular, after which Nicholas II decided to abdicate his throne.

October Revolution and the execution of the Romanov family

On the day when Nikolai Alexandrovich officially abdicated the throne, his entire family was arrested. The provisional government assured his wife that all this was being done for their own safety, promising to send them abroad. After some time, the former emperor himself was arrested. He and his family were brought to Tsarskoe Selo under guard. Then they were sent to Siberia to the city of Tobolsk in order to finally stop any attempt to restore tsarist power. The entire royal family lived there until October 1917...

It was then that the Provisional Government fell, and after October revolution The life of the royal family deteriorated sharply. They were transported to Yekaterinburg and kept in harsh conditions. The Bolsheviks, who came to power, wanted to arrange a show trial of the royal family, but they were afraid that it would again warm up the feelings of the people, and they themselves would be defeated. After the regional council in Yekaterinburg, a positive decision was made on the topic of execution of the imperial family. The Urals Executive Committee granted the request for execution. There is less than a day left before it disappears from the face of the earth. last family Romanovs.

The execution (there is no photo for obvious reasons) took place at night. Nikolai and his family were lifted out of bed, saying that they were transporting them to another place. A Bolshevik by the name of Yurovsky quickly said that the White Army wanted to free the former emperor, so the Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies decided to immediately execute the entire royal family in order to put an end to the Romanovs once and for all. Nicholas II did not have time to understand anything, when random shooting immediately rang out at him and his family. Thus ended the earthly journey of the last Russian emperor and his family.

First, the Provisional Government agrees to fulfill all the conditions. But already on March 8, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseev informed the Tsar that he “can consider himself, as it were, under arrest.” After some time, a notification of refusal comes from London, which previously agreed to accept the Romanov family. 21 March former emperor Nicholas II and his entire family were officially taken into custody.

A little more than a year later, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family Russian Empire will be shot in a cramped basement in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were subjected to hardships, getting closer and closer to their grim ending. Let's take a look at rare photos members of the last royal family of Russia, made some time before the execution.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the last royal family Russia, by decision of the Provisional Government, was sent to the Siberian city of Tobolsk to protect him from the wrath of the people. A few months earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated the throne, ending more than three hundred years of the Romanov dynasty.

The Romanovs began their five-day journey to Siberia in August, on the eve of Tsarevich Alexei's 13th birthday. The seven family members were joined by 46 servants and a military escort. The day before reaching their destination, the Romanovs sailed past native village Rasputin, whose eccentric influence on politics may have contributed to their dark ending.

The family arrived in Tobolsk on August 19 and began to live in relative comfort on the banks of the Irtysh River. In the Governor's Palace, where they were housed, the Romanovs were well fed, and they could communicate a lot with each other, without being distracted by state affairs and official events. The children performed plays for their parents, and the family often went into the city for religious services - this was the only form of freedom they were allowed.

When the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of 1917, the regime of the royal family began to tighten slowly but surely. The Romanovs were forbidden to attend church and generally leave the territory of the mansion. Soon coffee, sugar, butter and cream, and the soldiers assigned to protect them wrote obscene and offensive words on the walls and fences of their homes.

Things went from bad to worse. In April 1918, a commissar, a certain Yakovlev, arrived with an order to transport the former tsar from Tobolsk. The Empress was adamant in her desire to accompany her husband, but Comrade Yakovlev had other orders that complicated everything. At this time, Tsarevich Alexei, suffering from hemophilia, began to suffer from paralysis of both legs due to a bruise, and everyone expected that he would be left in Tobolsk, and the family would be divided during the war.

The commissioner's demands to move were adamant, so Nikolai, his wife Alexandra and one of their daughters, Maria, soon left Tobolsk. They eventually boarded a train to travel through Yekaterinburg to Moscow, where the Red Army was headquartered. However, Commissar Yakovlev was arrested for trying to save the royal family, and the Romanovs got off the train in Yekaterinburg, in the heart of the territory captured by the Bolsheviks.

In Yekaterinburg, the rest of the children joined their parents - everyone was locked in Ipatiev’s house. The family was placed on the second floor and completely cut off from outside world, boarding up the windows and posting guards at the doors. The Romanovs were allowed to go out Fresh air just five minutes a day.

At the beginning of July 1918, the Soviet authorities began to prepare for the execution of the royal family. The ordinary soldiers on guard were replaced by representatives of the Cheka, and the Romanovs were allowed to go to church services for the last time. The priest who conducted the service later admitted that none of the family said a word during the service. For July 16, the day of the murder, five truckloads of barrels of benzidine and acid were ordered to quickly dispose of the bodies.

Early in the morning of July 17, the Romanovs were gathered and told about the advance of the White Army. The family believed that they were simply being moved to a small, lighted basement for their own protection, because it would soon be unsafe here. Approaching the place of execution, the last Tsar of Russia passed by trucks, in one of which his body would soon lie, not even suspecting what a terrible fate awaited his wife and children.

In the basement, Nikolai was told that he was about to be executed. Not believing his own ears, he asked: “What?” - immediately after which the security officer Yakov Yurovsky shot the Tsar. Another 11 people pulled their triggers, filling the basement with Romanov blood. Alexei survived the first shot, but was finished off by Yurovsky's second shot. The next day, the bodies of members of the last royal family of Russia were burned 19 km from Yekaterinburg, in the village of Koptyaki.

Historically, Russia is a monarchical state. First there were princes, then kings. The history of our state is old and diverse. Russia has known many monarchs with different characters, human and managerial qualities. However, it was the Romanov family that became the brightest representative Russian throne. The history of their reign goes back about three centuries. And the end of the Russian Empire is also inextricably linked with this surname.

Romanov family: history

The Romanovs, an old noble family, did not immediately have such a surname. For centuries they were first called Kobylins, a little bit later Koshkins, then Zakharyins. And only after more than 6 generations they acquired the surname Romanov.

For the first time, this noble family was allowed to approach the Russian throne by the marriage of Tsar Ivan the Terrible with Anastasia Zakharyina.

There is no direct connection between the Rurikovichs and the Romanovs. It has been established that Ivan III is the great-great-grandson of one of Andrei Kobyla’s sons, Fedor, on his mother’s side. While the Romanov family became a continuation of Fyodor’s other grandson, Zakhary.

However, this fact played a key role when in 1613, at the Zemsky Sobor, the grandson of Anastasia Zakharyina’s brother, Mikhail, was elected to reign. So the throne passed from the Rurikovichs to the Romanovs. After this, rulers of this family succeeded each other for three centuries. During this time, our country changed its form of power and became the Russian Empire.

Peter I became the first emperor. A last Nikolai II, who abdicated as a result February revolution 1917 and was shot with his family in July of the following year.

Biography of Nicholas II

In order to understand the reasons for the pitiful end of the imperial reign, it is necessary to take a closer look at the biography of Nikolai Romanov and his family:

  1. Nicholas II was born in 1868. From childhood he was brought up in the best traditions of the royal court. From a young age he became interested in military affairs. From the age of 5 he took part in military training, parades and processions. Even before taking the oath, he had various ranks, including being a Cossack chieftain. As a result, the highest military rank of Nicholas became the rank of colonel. Nicholas came to power at the age of 27. Nicholas was an educated, intelligent monarch;
  2. To Nicholas's fiancée, a German princess who accepted Russian name- Alexandra Fedorovna, at the time of the marriage she was 22 years old. The couple loved each other very much and treated each other reverently all their lives. However, those around him had a negative attitude towards the empress, suspecting that the autocrat was too dependent on his wife;
  3. Nicholas's family had four daughters - Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, and the youngest son, Alexei, was born - a possible heir to the throne. Unlike his strong and healthy sisters, Alexey was diagnosed with hemophilia. This meant that the boy could die from any scratch.

Why was the Romanov family shot?

Nikolai made several fatal mistakes, which ultimately led to a tragic end:

  • The stampede on the Khodynka field is considered the first ill-considered mistake of Nikolai. In the first days of his reign, people went to Khodynska Square to buy gifts promised by the new emperor. The result was pandemonium and more than 1,200 people died. Nicholas remained indifferent to this event until the end of all the events dedicated to his coronation, which lasted for several more days. The people did not forgive him for such behavior and called him Bloody;
  • During his reign, there were many strife and contradictions in the country. The Emperor understood that it was necessary to urgently take measures in order to raise the patriotism of Russians and unite them. Many believe that it was for this purpose that the Russo-Japanese War was launched, which as a result was lost, and Russia lost part of its territory;
  • After the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, on the square in front of Winter Palace Without Nikolai’s knowledge, the military shot the people who had gathered for the rally. This event was called in history - “Bloody Sunday”;
  • During the First World War Russian state entered also carelessly. The conflict began in 1914 between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. The Emperor considered it necessary to stand up for the Balkan state, as a result of which Germany came to the defense of Austria-Hungary. The war dragged on, which no longer suited the military.

As a result, a provisional government was created in Petrograd. Nicholas knew about the mood of the people, but was unable to take any decisive action and signed a paper about his abdication.

The Provisional Government placed the family under arrest, first in Tsarskoye Selo, and then they were exiled to Tobolsk. After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the whole family was transported to Yekaterinburg and, by decision of the Bolshevik council, executed to prevent a return to royal power.

Remains of the royal family in modern times

After the execution, all the remains were collected and transported to the mines of Ganina Yama. It was not possible to burn the bodies, so they were thrown into the mine shafts. The next day, village residents discovered bodies floating at the bottom of the flooded mines and it became clear that reburial was necessary.

The remains were again loaded into the car. However, having driven away a little, she fell into the mud in the Porosenkov Log area. There they buried the dead, dividing the ashes into two parts.

The first part of the bodies was discovered in 1978. However, due to the long process of obtaining permission for excavations, it was possible to get to them only in 1991. Two bodies, presumably Maria and Alexei, were found in 2007 a little away from the road.

For many years different groups Scientists conducted many modern, high-tech examinations to determine the involvement of the remains in the royal family. As a result, the genetic similarity was proven, but some historians and the Russian Orthodox Church still disagree with these results.

Now the relics are reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Living representatives of the genus

The Bolsheviks sought to exterminate as many representatives of the royal family as possible so that no one would even have the thought of returning to the previous power. However, many managed to escape abroad.

In the male line, living descendants descend from the sons of Nicholas I - Alexander and Mikhail. There are also descendants in the female line who originate from Ekaterina Ioannovna. For the most part, they all do not live on the territory of our state. However, representatives of the clan have created and are developing public and charitable organizations that operate in Russia as well.

Thus, the Romanov family is a symbol of a bygone empire for our country. Many are still arguing about whether it is possible to revive imperial power in the country and whether it is worth doing. Obviously, this page of our history has been turned, and its representatives are buried with appropriate honors.

Video: execution of the Romanov family

This video recreates the moment the Romanov family was captured and their subsequent execution:

After the execution on the night of July 16-17, 1918, the bodies of members of the royal family and their associates (11 people in total) were loaded into a car and sent towards Verkh-Isetsk to the abandoned mines of Ganina Yama. At first they unsuccessfully tried to burn the victims, and then they threw them into a mine shaft and covered them with branches.

Discovery of remains

However, the next day almost the entire Verkh-Isetsk knew about what had happened. Moreover, according to a member of Medvedev’s firing squad, “the icy water of the mine not only completely washed away the blood, but also froze the bodies so much that they looked as if they were alive.” The conspiracy clearly failed.

It was decided to promptly rebury the remains. The area was cordoned off, but the truck, having driven only a few kilometers, got stuck in the swampy area of ​​Porosenkova Log. Without inventing anything, they buried one part of the bodies directly under the road, and the other a little to the side, after first filling them with sulfuric acid. Sleepers were placed on top for safety.

It is interesting that the forensic investigator N. Sokolov, sent by Kolchak in 1919 to search for the burial place, found this place, but never thought of lifting the sleepers. In the area of ​​​​Ganina Yama, he managed to find only a severed female finger. Nevertheless, the investigator’s conclusion was unequivocal: “This is all that remains of the August Family. The Bolsheviks destroyed everything else with fire and sulfuric acid.”

Nine years later, perhaps, it was Vladimir Mayakovsky who visited Porosenkov Log, as can be judged by his poem “The Emperor”: “Here a cedar has been touched with an ax, there are notches under the root of the bark, at the root there is a road under the cedar, and in it the emperor is buried.”

It is known that the poet, shortly before his trip to Sverdlovsk, met in Warsaw with one of the organizers of the execution of the royal family, Pyotr Voikov, who could show him the exact place.

Ural historians found the remains in Porosenkovo ​​Log in 1978, but permission for excavations was received only in 1991. There were 9 bodies in the burial. During the investigation, some of the remains were recognized as “royal”: according to experts, only Alexei and Maria were missing. However, many experts were confused by the results of the examination, and therefore no one was in a hurry to agree with the conclusions. The House of Romanovs and the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the remains as authentic.

Alexei and Maria were discovered only in 2007, guided by a document drawn up from the words of the commandant of the “House of Special Purpose” Yakov Yurovsky. “Yurovsky’s note” initially did not inspire much confidence, however, the location of the second burial was indicated correctly.

Falsifications and myths

Immediately after the execution, representatives of the new government tried to convince the West that members of the imperial family, or at least the children, were alive and in a safe place. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin in April 1922 at the Genoa Conference, when asked by one of the correspondents about the fate of the Grand Duchesses, vaguely answered: “The fate of the Tsar’s daughters is not known to me. I read in the newspapers that they are in America.”

However, P.L. Voikov informally stated more specifically: “the world will never know what we did to the royal family.” But later, after the materials of Sokolov’s investigation were published in the West, the Soviet authorities recognized the fact of the execution of the imperial family.

Falsifications and speculation around the execution of the Romanovs contributed to the spread of persistent myths, among which the myth of ritual murder and the severed head of Nicholas II, which was in the special storage facility of the NKVD, was popular. Later, stories about the “miraculous rescue” of the Tsar’s children, Alexei and Anastasia, were added to the myths. But all this remained myths.

Investigation and examinations

In 1993, the investigation into the discovery of the remains was entrusted to the investigator of the General Prosecutor's Office, Vladimir Solovyov. Given the importance of the case, in addition to traditional ballistic and macroscopic examinations, additional genetic studies were carried out jointly with English and American scientists.

For these purposes, blood was taken from some Romanov relatives living in England and Greece. The results showed that the probability of the remains belonging to members of the royal family was 98.5 percent.
The investigation considered this insufficient. Solovyov managed to obtain permission to exhume the remains sibling king - George. Scientists confirmed the “absolute positional similarity of mt-DNA” of both remains, which revealed a rare genetic mutation inherent in the Romanovs - heteroplasmy.

However, after the discovery of the supposed remains of Alexei and Maria in 2007, new research and examination were required. The work of the scientists was greatly facilitated by Alexy II, who, before the burial of the first group, royal remains in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral asked investigators to remove bone particles. “Science is developing, it is possible that they will be needed in the future,” these were the words of the Patriarch.

To remove the doubts of skeptics, the head of the laboratory of molecular genetics at the University of Massachusetts, Evgeniy Rogaev (whom representatives of the House of Romanov insisted on), the chief geneticist of the US Army, Michael Cobble (who returned the names of the victims of September 11), as well as an employee of the Institute of Forensic Medicine from Austria, Walter, were invited for new examinations. Parson.

Comparing the remains from the two burials, experts once again double-checked the previously obtained data and also conducted new research - the previous results were confirmed. Moreover, the “blood-spattered shirt” of Nicholas II (the Otsu incident), discovered in the Hermitage collections, fell into the hands of scientists. And again the answer is positive: the genotypes of the king “on blood” and “on bones” coincided.

Results

The results of the investigation into the execution of the royal family refuted some previously existing assumptions. For example, according to experts, “under the conditions in which the destruction of corpses was carried out, it was impossible to completely destroy the remains using sulfuric acid and flammable materials.”

This fact excludes Ganina Yama as a final burial site.
True, historian Vadim Viner finds a serious gap in the conclusions of the investigation. He believes that some finds belonging to a later time were not taken into account, in particular coins from the 30s. But as the facts show, information about the burial place very quickly “leaked” to the masses, and therefore the burial ground could be repeatedly opened in search of possible valuables.

Another revelation is offered by the historian S.A. Belyaev, who believes that “they could have buried the family of an Ekaterinburg merchant with imperial honors,” although without providing convincing arguments.
However, the conclusions of the investigation, which was carried out with unprecedented scrupulousness using the latest methods, with the participation of independent experts, are unambiguous: all 11 remains clearly correlate with each of those shot in Ipatiev’s house. Common sense and logic dictate that it is impossible to duplicate such physical and genetic correspondences by chance.
In December 2010, the final conference dedicated to the latest results of the examinations was held in Yekaterinburg. The reports were made by 4 groups of geneticists working independently in different countries. Opponents of the official version could also present their views, but according to eyewitnesses, “after listening to the reports, they left the hall without saying a word.”
The Russian Orthodox Church still does not recognize the authenticity of the “Ekaterinburg remains,” but many representatives of the House of Romanov, judging by their statements in the press, accepted the final results of the investigation.

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

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

Background

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

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

Strikes and rallies, demonstrations and bread riots, famine. All this indicated decline. The only way out could be the accession to the throne of an imperious and tough ruler who could take complete control of the country.

Nicholas II was not like that. It was focused on construction railways, churches, improving the economy and culture in society. He managed to make progress in these areas. But positive changes affected mainly only the top of society, while the majority of ordinary residents remained at the level of the Middle Ages. Splinters, wells, carts and everyday life of peasants and craftsmen.

After the entry of the Russian Empire into the First World War, the discontent of the people only intensified. The execution of the royal family became the apotheosis of general madness. Next we will look at this crime in more detail.

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

Small local commissars wanted to curry favor with the higher ranks. The rank and file and junior officers simply mindlessly followed orders. The troubled times that ensued during these turbulent years brought unfavorable elements to the surface.

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

Course of events

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

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

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

But in April, after a fierce struggle for power, the Bolsheviks recalled “unfinished business.” The decision is made to deliver all imperial family to Yekaterinburg, which at that time was a stronghold of the red movement.

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

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

The role of Yakovlev, who was tasked with transporting the emperor and his family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, is interesting. He knew about the assassination attempt on the Tsar that was being prepared by the Siberian Bolsheviks.

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

After arriving in Yekaterinburg, all prisoners were placed in Ipatiev’s mansion. A photo of the Romanov royal family was preserved when Yakovlev handed it over to the Urals Council. The place of detention among the revolutionaries was called a “house of special purpose.”

Here they were kept for seventy-eight days. The relationship of the convoy to the emperor and his family will be discussed in more detail below. For now, it is important to focus on the fact that it was rude and boorish. They were robbed, psychologically and morally oppressed, abused so that they were not noticeable outside the walls of the mansion.

Considering the results of the investigations, we will take a closer look at the night when the monarch with his family and retinue were shot. Now we note that the execution took place at approximately half past two in the morning. Life physician Botkin, on the orders of the revolutionaries, woke up all the prisoners and went down with them to the basement.

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

Thus, this indicates a hasty and unprepared operation. The execution became lynching, which the Bolsheviks, who had lost their heads, resorted to.

Government disinformation

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

Nevertheless, immediately after the atrocity, the government began a campaign to whiten its reputation. Among researchers studying this period, latest actions are called a “disinformation campaign.”

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

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

The events of the crime were not disclosed for several years. Official recognition was given only in 1925. This decision was prompted by the publication of a book in Western Europe that outlined the results of Sokolov’s investigation. Then Bykov is instructed to write about “the current course of events.” This brochure was published in Sverdlovsk in 1926.

Nevertheless, the lies of the Bolsheviks at the international level, as well as hiding the truth from the common people, shook faith in power. and its consequences, according to Lykova, became the reason for people's distrust of the government, which did not change even in post-Soviet times.

The fate of the remaining Romanovs

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

A statement was made to the international press that Grand Duke was kidnapped by attackers and went missing. For Russia, the official version was the escape of Mikhail Alexandrovich.

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

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

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

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

Memoirs of contemporaries

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

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

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

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

Although they are often confused, the main idea remains the same. All the Bolsheviks who were close to the tsar in recent months had complaints against him. Some were in prison themselves in the past, others had relatives. In general, they gathered a contingent of former prisoners.

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

According to the participants, this was the only solution. In addition, many of them boasted during interrogations that they personally killed the emperor. Some with one, and some with three shots. Judging by the diaries of Nikolai and his wife, the workers guarding them were often drunk. Therefore, real events cannot be reconstructed for certain.

What happened to the remains

The murder of the royal family took place secretly and was planned to be kept secret. But those responsible for the disposal of the remains failed to cope with their task.

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

According to the testimony of the participants in the process, they spent several days with the task. At first it was planned to burn the clothes and throw the naked bodies into the mine and cover them with earth. But the collapse did not work out. We had to extract the remains of the royal family and come up with another method.

It was decided to burn them or bury them along the road that was just under construction. The preliminary plan was to disfigure the bodies with sulfuric acid beyond recognition. It is clear from the protocols that two corpses were burned and the rest were buried.

Presumably the body of Alexei and one of the servant girls burned.

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

The investigation showed that attempts to bury the bodies were near shaft No. 7 and the 184th crossing. In particular, they were discovered near the latter in 1991.

Kirsta's investigation

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

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

He began questioning witnesses who gave conflicting testimony. But based on them, Kirsta concluded that perhaps only the emperor and his heir were shot. The rest of the family was taken to Perm.

It seems that this investigator set himself the goal of proving that not the entire Romanov royal family was killed. Even after he clearly confirmed the crime, Kirsta continued to interrogate more people.

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

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

Sokolov's investigation

Kolchak, who came to power in 1919, ordered Dieterichs to understand how the Romanov royal family was killed. The latter delegated this case to a special investigator important matters Omsk district.

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

Sokolov again visited the mine, as well as Ipatiev’s mansion. Inspection of the house was made difficult by the location of the Czech army headquarters there. However, a German inscription on the wall was discovered, a quote from Heine's verse about the monarch being killed by his subjects. The words were clearly scratched out after the city was lost to the Reds.

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

After the Bolsheviks recapture this region, Sokolov takes all office work to Harbin, and then to Western Europe. Photos of the royal family, diaries, evidence, etc. were evacuated.

He published the results of the investigation in 1924 in Paris. In 1997, Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, transferred all paperwork to the Russian government. In exchange, he was given the archives of his family, taken away during the Second World War.

Modern investigation

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

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

The investigation of the burial was carried out by the senior prosecutor-criminologist Soloviev. In general, he confirmed all of Sokolov’s materials. His message to Patriarch Alexei II states that “under the conditions of that time, the complete destruction of the corpses was impossible.”

In addition, the investigation of the late 20th - early 21st centuries completely refuted alternative versions of events, which we will discuss later.
The canonization of the royal family was carried out in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia - in 2000.

Since the Bolsheviks tried to keep this crime secret, rumors spread, contributing to the formation of alternative versions.

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

According to Dieterichs' theory, the emperor's head was cut off and preserved in alcohol. The finds of remains also refuted this crazy idea.

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

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

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