There was no execution of the Royal Family! Nicholas II.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, the heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as the life medical doctor Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexei Trupp, room girl Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov.

The last Russian emperor, Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II), ascended the throne in 1894 after the death of his father, Emperor Alexander III, and ruled until 1917, when the situation in the country became more complicated. On March 12 (February 27, old style), 1917, an armed uprising began in Petrograd, and on March 15 (March 2, old style), 1917, at the insistence of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, Nicholas II signed the abdication of the throne for himself and his son Alexei in favor of the younger brother Mikhail Alexandrovich.

After his abdication from March to August 1917, Nikolai and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. A special commission of the Provisional Government studied materials for the possible trial of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on charges of treason. Not finding evidence and documents that clearly denounced them as such, the Provisional Government was inclined to send them abroad (to Great Britain).

In August 1917, the arrested were transferred to Tobolsk. The main idea of ​​the Bolshevik leadership was an open trial of the former emperor. In April 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the Romanovs to Moscow. Vladimir Lenin spoke out for the trial of the former tsar, and Leon Trotsky was supposed to be made the main accuser of Nicholas II. However, information appeared about the existence of "White Guard conspiracies" to kidnap the tsar, the concentration of "officers-conspirators" for this purpose in Tyumen and Tobolsk, and on April 6, 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the royal family to the Urals. The royal family was moved to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Ipatiev house.

The uprising of the White Czechs and the offensive of the White Guard troops on Yekaterinburg accelerated the decision to execute the former tsar.

It was entrusted to the commandant of the House of Special Purpose Yakov Yurovsky to organize the execution of all members of the royal family, Dr. Botkin and the servants who were in the house.

© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg

The execution scene is known from the investigation protocols, from the words of the participants and eyewitnesses, and from the stories of the direct perpetrators. Yurovsky spoke about the execution of the royal family in three documents: "Note" (1920); "Memoirs" (1922) and "Speech at a meeting of old Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg" (1934). All the details of this atrocity, transmitted by the main participant at different times and under completely different circumstances, agree on how the royal family and its servants were shot.

According to documentary sources, it is possible to establish the time of the beginning of the murder of Nicholas II, members of his family and their servants. The car that delivered the last order to destroy the family arrived at half past two in the night from July 16 to 17, 1918. After that, the commandant ordered the life doctor Botkin to wake the royal family. It took the family about 40 minutes to get ready, then she and the servants were transferred to the basement of this house, overlooking Voznesensky Lane. Nicholas II carried Tsarevich Alexei in his arms, because he could not walk due to illness. At the request of Alexandra Feodorovna, two chairs were brought into the room. She sat on one, on the other Tsarevich Alexei. The rest lined up along the wall. Yurovsky led the firing squad into the room and read the sentence.

Here is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I suggested that everyone stand up. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies Urala decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and ordered: "Shoot." I fired the first shot and killed Nikolai on the spot. The firing lasted a very long time and, despite my hopes that the wooden wall would not ricochet, the bullets bounced off it "For a long time I could not stop this shooting, which had taken on a careless character. But when, finally, I managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Dr. Botkin was lying, leaning on his right elbow, as if in a resting position, with a Aleksey, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Comrade Ermakov wanted to finish the job with a bayonet. But, however, this was not possible. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond shells like bras). I had to shoot each one in turn."

After the statement of death, all the corpses began to be transferred to the truck. At the beginning of the fourth hour, at dawn, the corpses of the dead were taken out of the Ipatiev house.

The remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, Olga, Tatyana and Anastasia Romanov, as well as those from their entourage, who were shot in the House of Special Purpose (Ipatiev House), were discovered in July 1991 near Yekaterinburg.

On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the royal family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In October 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, who were executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. The servants and close associates of the royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks or were subjected to repression, were rehabilitated.

In January 2009, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation stopped investigating the case on the circumstances of the death and burial of the last Russian emperor, members of his family and people from his entourage, who were shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal liability and death of the persons who committed the deliberate murder" (subparagraphs 3 and 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR).

On January 15, 2009, the investigator issued a decision to dismiss the criminal case, but on August 26, 2010, the judge of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow decided, in accordance with Article 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, to recognize this decision as unfounded and ordered to eliminate the violations committed. On November 25, 2010, the decision of the investigation to dismiss this case was canceled by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee.

On January 14, 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced that the decision was brought in accordance with the court decision and the criminal case on the death of representatives of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in 1918-1919 was terminated. Identification of the remains of members of the family of the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II (Romanov) and persons from his retinue has been confirmed.

On October 27, 2011, the decision to close the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family was. The ruling on 800 pages contains the main conclusions of the investigation and indicates the authenticity of the discovered remains of the royal family.

However, the question of authentication still remains open. The Russian Orthodox Church, in order to recognize the found remains as the relics of the royal martyrs, the Russian Imperial House supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in this matter. The director of the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic expertise is not enough.

The Church canonized Nicholas II and his family and on July 17 celebrates the feast day of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

In this case, the conversation will be about those gentlemen, thanks to whom, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg there was a brutal the royal family of the Romanovs was killed. The name of these executioners is one - regicides. Some of them made the decision, while others carried it out. As a result, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and their children, Grand Duchesses Anastasia, Maria, Olga, Tatyana and Tsarevich Alexei, died. Together with them, people from the service personnel were also shot. These are the personal cook of the family Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, the chamber footman Alexei Egorovich Trupp, the room girl Anna Demidova and the family doctor Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin.

criminals

A terrible crime was preceded by a meeting of the Presidium of the Ural Council, which took place on July 12, 1918. It was on it that the decision was made to execute the royal family. A detailed plan was also developed for both the crime itself and the destruction of corpses, that is, the concealment of traces of the destruction of innocent people.

The meeting was headed by the chairman of the Ural Council, a member of the presidium of the regional committee of the RCP (b) Alexander Georgievich Beloborodov (1891-1938). Together with him, the decision was made by: the military commissar of Yekaterinburg Filipp Isaevich Goloshchekin (1876-1941), the chairman of the regional Cheka Fyodor Nikolaevich Lukoyanov (1894-1947), the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Yekaterinburgsky Rabochiy Georgy Ivanovich Safarov (1891-1942), the supply commissar of the Ural Council Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov (1888-1927), commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky (1878-1938).

The Bolsheviks called the house of the engineer Ipatiev the "House of Special Purpose". It was in it that the Romanov royal family was kept in May-July 1918 after it was transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.

But you have to be a very naive person to think that middle-level executives took responsibility and independently made the most important political decision to execute the royal family. They found it possible only to coordinate it with the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (1885-1919). This is how the Bolsheviks presented everything in their time.

Already somewhere, where, but in the Leninist party, discipline was ironclad. Decisions came only from the very top, and grass-roots employees unquestioningly executed them. Therefore, with all responsibility it can be argued that the instruction was given directly by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who was sitting in the silence of the Kremlin office. Naturally, he discussed this issue with Sverdlov and the chief Ural Bolshevik Evgeny Alekseevich Preobrazhensky (1886-1937).

The latter, of course, was aware of all the decisions, although he was absent from Yekaterinburg on the bloody date of the execution. At this time, he took part in the work of the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Moscow, and then departed for Kursk and returned to the Urals only in the last days of July 1918.

But, in any case, officially Ulyanov and Preobrazhensky cannot be blamed for the death of the Romanov family. Sverdlov bears indirect responsibility. After all, he imposed the resolution "agreed". A kind of soft-bodied leader. Resignedly took note of the decision of the grassroots organization and readily scribbled the usual replies on a piece of paper. Only a 5-year-old child can believe in this.

The royal family in the basement of the Ipatiev house before the execution

Now let's talk about performers. About those villains who carried out a terrible sacrilege by raising their hands against the anointed of God and his family. To date, the exact name of the killers is unknown. No one can name the number of criminals. There is an opinion that Latvian riflemen took part in the execution, since the Bolsheviks considered that Russian soldiers would not shoot at the tsar and his family. Other researchers insist on the Hungarians who guarded the arrested Romanovs.

However, there are names that appear on all the lists of various researchers. This is the commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky, who led the execution. His deputy Grigory Petrovich Nikulin (1895-1965). The commander of the guards of the royal family, Pyotr Zakharovich Ermakov (1884-1952) and an employee of the Cheka, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Medvedev (Kudrin) (1891-1964).

These four people were directly involved in the execution of representatives of the House of Romanov. They carried out the decision of the Ural Council. At the same time, they showed amazing cruelty, since they not only shot absolutely defenseless people, but also finished them off with bayonets, and then doused them with acid so that the bodies could not be recognized.

To each will be rewarded according to his deeds

Organizers

There is an opinion that God sees everything and punishes the villains for their deeds. The regicides belong to the most cruel part of the criminal elements. Their goal is to seize power. They go to her through the corpses, not at all embarrassed by this. At the same time, people are dying who are not at all to blame for the fact that they received their crowned title by inheritance. As for Nicholas II, this man was no longer emperor at the time of his death, since he voluntarily renounced the crown.

Moreover, there is no way to justify the death of his family and staff. What was driving the villains? Of course, rabid cynicism, disregard for human lives, lack of spirituality and rejection of Christian norms and rules. The most terrible thing is that, having committed a terrible crime, these gentlemen were proud of what they had done for the rest of their lives. They willingly told about everything to journalists, schoolchildren and just idle listeners.

But let us return to God and trace the life path of those who doomed innocent people to a terrible death for the sake of an irrepressible desire to command others.

Ulyanov and Sverdlov

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. We all know him as the leader of the world proletariat. However, this people's leader was spattered up to the top of his head with human blood. After the execution of the Romanovs, he lived for only 5 years. He died of syphilis, having lost his mind. This is the most terrible punishment of the heavenly forces.

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov. He left this world at the age of 33, 9 months after the villainy committed in Yekaterinburg. In the city of Orel, he was severely beaten by workers. The very ones for whose rights he allegedly stood up for. With multiple fractures and injuries, he was taken to Moscow, where he died 8 days later.

These are the two main criminals directly responsible for the death of the Romanov family. The regicides were punished and died not at an advanced age, surrounded by children and grandchildren, but in the prime of life. As for the other organizers of villainy, here the heavenly forces delayed the punishment, but God's judgment still happened, giving everyone what they deserved.

Goloshchekin and Beloborodov (right)

Philip Isaevich Goloshchekin- the chief security officer of Yekaterinburg and the territories adjacent to it. It was he who went to Moscow at the end of June, where he received oral instructions from Sverdlov regarding the execution of crowned persons. After that, he returned to the Urals, where the Presidium of the Ural Council was hastily assembled, and a decision was made on the secret execution of the Romanovs.

In mid-October 1939, Philip Isaevich was arrested. He was accused of anti-state activities and an unhealthy attraction to little boys. This perverted gentleman was shot at the end of October 1941. Goloshchekin outlived the Romanovs by 23 years, but retribution still overtook him.

Chairman of the Ural Council Alexander Georgievich Beloborodov- at present, this is the chairman of the regional duma. It was he who led the meeting at which the decision was made to execute the royal family. His signature was next to the word "I approve". If we approach this issue officially, then it is he who bears the main responsibility for the murder of innocent people.

Beloborodov has been a member of the Bolshevik Party since 1907, having joined it as a minor boy after the 1905 revolution. In all the posts entrusted to him by his senior comrades, he showed himself to be an exemplary and diligent worker. The best proof of this is July 1918.

After the execution of the crowned persons, Alexander Georgievich soared very high. In March 1919, his candidacy was considered for the post of president of the young Soviet republic. But preference was given to Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (1875-1946), since he knew peasant life well, and our "hero" was born into a working-class family.

But the former chairman of the Ural Council was not offended. He was appointed head of the political department of the Red Army. In 1921, he became deputy to Felix Dzherzhinesky, who headed the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. In 1923 he succeeded him in this high post. True, further a brilliant career did not work out.

In December 1927, Beloborodov was removed from his post and exiled to Arkhangelsk. From 1930 he worked as a middle manager. In August 1936 he was arrested by the NKVD. In February 1938, by decision of the military board, Alexander Georgievich was shot. At the time of his death, he was 46 years old. After the death of the Romanovs, the main culprit did not live even 20 years. In 1938, his wife Yablonskaya Franciska Viktorovna was also shot.

Safarov and Voikov (right)

Georgy Ivanovich Safarov- Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper "Ekaterinburg Worker". This Bolshevik with pre-revolutionary experience was an ardent supporter of the execution of the Romanov family, although she did nothing wrong to him. He lived well until 1917 in France and Switzerland. He came to Russia together with Ulyanov and Zinoviev in a "sealed carriage".

After the committed villainy, he worked in Turkestan, and then in the executive committee of the Comintern. Then he became the editor-in-chief of Leningradskaya Pravda. In 1927 he was expelled from the party and sentenced to 4 years of exile in the city of Achinsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory). In 1928, the party card was returned and again sent to work in the Comintern. But after the assassination of Sergei Kirov at the end of 1934, Safarov finally lost confidence.

He was again exiled to Achinsk, and in December 1936 he was sentenced to 5 years in the camps. From January 1937, Georgy Ivanovich served his sentence in Vorkuta. He performed the duties of a water carrier there. He walked in a prisoner's pea jacket, belted with a rope. The family abandoned him after the guilty verdict. For the former Bolshevik-Leninist, this was a heavy moral blow.

Safarov was not released after the end of his term. It was a difficult time, military, and someone apparently decided that Ulyanov's former ally had nothing to do in the rear of the Soviet troops. He was shot by decision of a special commission on July 27, 1942. This "hero" survived the Romanovs by 24 years and 10 days. He died at the age of 51, having lost both freedom and family at the end of his life.

Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov- the main supplier of the Urals. He was closely involved in food issues. And how could he get food in 1919? Naturally, he took them away from peasants and merchants who did not leave Yekaterinburg. With his tireless activity, he brought the region to complete impoverishment. The troops of the white army arrived well in time, otherwise people would begin to die of hunger.

This gentleman also came to Russia in a "sealed carriage", but not with Ulyanov, but with Anatoly Lunacharsky (the first people's commissar of education). Voikov was a Menshevik at first, but quickly figured out which way the wind was blowing. At the end of 1917, he broke with a shameful past and joined the RCP (b).

Pyotr Lazarevich not only raised his hand, voting for the death of the Romanovs, but also took an active part in hiding the traces of villainy. It was he who came up with the idea to douse the bodies with sulfuric acid. Since he was in charge of all the warehouses of the city, he personally signed the invoice for the receipt of this very acid. By his order, transport was also allocated for the transportation of bodies, shovels, picks, crowbars. The business manager is the main one, whatever you want.

Activities related to material values, Pyotr Lazarevich liked. Since 1919, he was engaged in consumer cooperation, while serving as deputy chairman of the Tsentrosoyuz. Concurrently, he organized the sale abroad of the treasures of the Romanov House and museum valuables of the Diamond Fund, the Armory, private collections requisitioned from the exploiters.

Priceless works of art and jewelry went to the black market, since officially at that time no one had business with the young Soviet state. Hence the ridiculous prices that were given for items that had a unique historical value.

In October 1924, Voikov left as an envoy to Poland. It was already big politics, and Petr Lazarevich enthusiastically began to settle in a new field. But the poor guy was out of luck. On June 7, 1927, he was shot dead by Boris Kaverda (1907-1987). The Bolshevik terrorist fell at the hands of another terrorist belonging to the white émigré movement. Retribution came almost 9 years after the death of the Romanovs. At the time of his death, our next "hero" was 38 years old.

Fyodor Nikolaevich Lukoyanov- the chief Chekist of the Urals. He voted for the execution of the royal family, therefore he is one of the organizers of villainy. But in subsequent years, this "hero" did not show himself in any way. The point is that since 1919 he began to be tormented by bouts of schizophrenia. Therefore, Fedor Nikolaevich devoted his entire life to journalism. He worked in various newspapers, and died in 1947 at the age of 53, 29 years after the murder of the Romanov family.

Performers

As for the direct perpetrators of the bloody crime, God's court treated them much milder than the organizers. They were forced people and just carried out the order. Therefore, they are less to blame. At least that's what you might think if you trace the fateful path of each criminal.

The main perpetrator of the terrible murder of defenseless women and men, as well as a sick boy. He boasted that he personally shot Nicholas II. However, his subordinates also claimed this role.

Yakov Yurovsky

After the crime, he was taken to Moscow and sent to work in the organs of the Cheka. Then, after the liberation of Yekaterinburg from the White troops, Yurovsky returned to the city. Received the post of Chief Chekist of the Urals.

In 1921 he was transferred to the Gokhran and began to live in Moscow. Engaged in the accounting of material values. After that, he worked a little in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.

In 1923, a sharp decline. Yakov Mikhailovich was appointed director of the Krasny Bogatyr plant. That is, our hero began to lead the production of rubber shoes: boots, galoshes, boots. A rather strange profile after the KGB and financial activities.

In 1928, Yurovsky was transferred as director of the Polytechnic Museum. This is a long building near the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1938, the main perpetrator of the assassination died of an ulcer at the age of 60. He outlived his victims by 20 years and 16 days.

But apparently the regicides bring a curse on their offspring. This "hero" had three children. The eldest daughter Rimma Yakovlevna (1898-1980) and two younger sons.

The daughter joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and headed the youth organization (Komsomol) of Yekaterinburg. Since 1926, in the party work. She made a good career in this field in the city of Voronezh in 1934-1937. Then she was transferred to Rostov-on-Don, where she was arrested in 1938. She stayed in the camps until 1946.

Sat in prison and son Alexander Yakovlevich (1904-1986). He was arrested in 1952, but, however, was soon released. But trouble happened with the grandchildren and granddaughters. All the boys tragically died. Two fell from the roof of the house, two burned down during the fire. The girls died in infancy. Yurovsky's niece Maria suffered the most. She had 11 children. Only one boy survived to adolescence. The mother abandoned him. The child was adopted by strangers.

Concerning Nikulin, Ermakova and Medvedev (Kudrin), then these gentlemen lived to old age. They worked, were honorably retired, and then buried with dignity. But regicides always get what they deserve. This trio escaped their well-deserved punishment on earth, but there is still judgment in heaven.

Grave of Grigory Petrovich Nikulin

After death, each soul rushes to heavenly places, hoping that the angels will let her into the kingdom of heaven. So the souls of the killers rushed to the Light. But then a dark personality appeared in front of each of them. She politely took the sinner by the elbow and unambiguously nodded in the opposite direction from Paradise.

There, in the heavenly haze, a black pharynx was visible in the Underworld. And next to him were disgusting grinning faces, nothing like heavenly angels. These are devils, and they have one job - to put a sinner on a hot frying pan and fry him forever on a slow fire.

In conclusion, it should be noted that violence always breeds violence. The one who commits a crime becomes a victim of the criminals himself. Vivid proof of this is the fate of the regicides, about which we have tried to tell in as much detail as possible in our sad story.

Egor Laskutnikov

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

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

Preparations for the shooting

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

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

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

There is no archive source for the telegram.

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

Execution

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

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

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

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

background

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

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

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

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

After 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 insanity. Next, we will look into this crime in more detail.

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

The petty local commissars wanted to curry favor with the higher ranks. Ordinary and junior officers simply mindlessly carried out orders. The time of troubles that came in 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 can see that the clothes of the emperor, his wife and children are by no means pompous. They are no different from the peasants and escorts who surrounded them in exile.
Let's see what really happened in Yekaterinburg in July 1918.

Course of events

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Government disinformation

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

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

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

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

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

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

The fate of the rest of the Romanovs

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

A statement was made to the international press that the Grand Duke had been kidnapped by intruders and was 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 "fair punishment."

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

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

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

Memoirs of contemporaries

Researchers have tried to reconstruct how members of the royal family were killed. The best way to deal with this is the testimonies of people who were present there.
The first such source is notes from 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 in the conditions of the approach of the Czechoslovak detachments, Stalin's phrase that "the tsar cannot be handed over to the White Guards" became a death sentence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happened to the remains

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kirsta investigation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sokolov's investigation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Modern Investigation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It would seem difficult to find new evidence of the terrible events that took place on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Even people far from the ideas of monarchism remember that this night was fatal for the Romanov royal family. That night, Nicholas II, who abdicated the throne, the former Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their children - 14-year-old Alexei, Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia, were shot.

Their fate was shared by the doctor E.S. Botkin, the maid A. Demidova, the cook Kharitonov and the footman. But from time to time there are witnesses who, after long years of silence, report new details of the murder of the royal family.

Many books have been written about the execution of the Romanov royal family. To this day, discussions do not cease about whether the murder of the Romanovs was planned in advance and whether it was part of Lenin's plans. And in our time there are people who believe that at least the children of Nicholas II were able to escape from the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

The accusation of the murder of the royal family of the Romanovs was an excellent trump card against the Bolsheviks, gave grounds to accuse them of inhumanity. Is this why most of the documents and testimonies that tell about the last days of the Romanovs appeared and continue to appear precisely in Western countries? But some researchers believe that the crime that Bolshevik Russia was accused of was not committed at all ...

From the very beginning, there were many secrets in the investigation into the circumstances of the execution of the Romanovs. In relatively hot pursuit, two investigators were engaged in it. The first investigation began a week after the alleged murder. The investigator came to the conclusion that the emperor was actually executed on the night of July 16-17, but the former queen, her son and four daughters were saved. At the beginning of 1919 a new investigation was carried out. It was headed by Nikolai Sokolov. Was he able to find indisputable evidence that the entire Romanov family was killed in Yekaterinburg? Hard to say…

When examining the mine where the bodies of the royal family were dumped, he found several things that for some reason did not catch the eye of his predecessor: a miniature pin that the prince used as a fishing hook, precious stones that were sewn into the belts of the great princesses, and the skeleton of a tiny dog, probably the favorite of Princess Tatyana. If we recall the circumstances of the death of the royal family, it is difficult to imagine that the corpse of a dog was also transported from place to place in order to hide ... Sokolov did not find human remains, except for several fragments of bones and a severed finger of a middle-aged woman, presumably the empress.

1919 - Sokolov fled abroad, to Europe. But the results of his investigation were published only in 1924. Quite a long time, especially considering the many emigrants who were interested in the fate of the Romanovs. According to Sokolov, all the Romanovs were killed on the fateful night. True, he was not the first to suggest that the Empress and her children could not escape. Back in 1921, this version was published by the chairman of the Yekaterinburg Soviet, Pavel Bykov. It would seem that one could forget about the hopes that one of the Romanovs survived. But both in Europe and in Russia, numerous impostors and impostors constantly appeared, who declared themselves the children of the emperor. So, were there any doubts?

The first argument of the supporters of the revision of the version of the death of the entire Romanov family was the Bolshevik announcement of the execution of Nicholas II, which was made on July 19. It said that only the tsar was executed, and Alexandra Feodorovna and her children were sent to a safe place. The second is that it was more profitable for the Bolsheviks at that time to exchange Alexandra Fedorovna for political prisoners held in German captivity. There were rumors about negotiations on this subject. Shortly after the death of the emperor, Sir Charles Eliot, the British consul in Siberia, visited Yekaterinburg. He met with the first investigator in the Romanov case, after which he informed his superiors that, in his opinion, the former tsarina and her children left Yekaterinburg by train on 17 July.

Almost at the same time, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, Alexandra's brother, allegedly informed his second sister, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, that Alexandra was safe. Of course, he could simply comfort his sister, who could not help but hear rumors about the massacre of the Romanovs. If Alexandra and her children were actually exchanged for political prisoners (Germany would willingly take this step in order to save her princess), all the newspapers of both the Old and New Worlds would trumpet about it. This would mean that the dynasty, connected by blood ties with many of the oldest monarchies in Europe, did not break off. But no articles followed, because the version that the entire royal family was killed was recognized as official.

In the early 1970s, British journalists Anthony Summers and Tom Menshld got acquainted with the official documents of the Sokolov investigation. And they found many inaccuracies and shortcomings in them that cast doubt on this version. Firstly, the encrypted telegram about the execution of the entire royal family, sent to Moscow on July 17, appeared in the file only in January 1919, after the removal of the first investigator. Second, the bodies still haven't been found. And to judge the death of the Empress by a single fragment of the body - a severed finger - was not entirely correct.

1988 - it would seem that irrefutable evidence of the death of the emperor, his wife and children appeared. The former investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, screenwriter Geliy Ryabov, received a secret report from his son Yakov Yurovsky (one of the main participants in the execution). It contained detailed information about where the remains of members of the royal family were hidden. Ryabov began to search. He managed to find greenish-black bones with traces of burns left by acid. 1988 - he published a report on his find. 1991, July - Russian professional archaeologists arrived at the place where the remains, presumably belonging to the Romanovs, were found.

9 skeletons were removed from the ground. 4 of them belonged to Nikolai's servants and their family doctor. 5 more - to the king, his wife and children. Establishing the identity of the remains was not easy. First, the skulls were compared with surviving photographs of members of the imperial family. One of them was identified as the skull of the emperor. Later, a comparative analysis of DNA fingerprints was carried out. This required the blood of a person who was related to the deceased. The blood sample was provided by Britain's Prince Philip. His maternal grandmother was the sister of the Empress's grandmother.

The result of the analysis showed a complete match of DNA in four skeletons, which gave grounds to officially recognize the remains of Alexandra and her three daughters in them. The bodies of the Tsarevich and Anastasia were not found. On this occasion, two hypotheses were put forward: either two descendants of the Romanov family still managed to stay alive, or their bodies were burned. It seems that Sokolov was still right, and his report turned out to be not a provocation, but a real coverage of the facts ...

1998 - the remains of the Romanov family were transported with honors to St. Petersburg and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. True, there were immediately skeptics who were sure that the remains of completely different people were in the cathedral.

2006 - another DNA test was carried out. This time, samples of skeletons found in the Urals were compared with fragments of the relics of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. A series of studies was carried out by L. Zhivotovsky, Doctor of Science, an employee of the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was assisted by American colleagues. The results of this analysis were a complete surprise: the DNA of Elizabeth and the alleged empress did not match. The first thought that came to the mind of the researchers was that the relics stored in the cathedral did not actually belong to Elizabeth, but to someone else. However, this version had to be excluded: the body of Elizabeth was discovered in a mine near Alapaevsky in the autumn of 1918, she was identified by people who were closely acquainted with her, including the confessor of the Grand Duchess, Father Seraphim.

This priest subsequently accompanied the coffin with the body of his spiritual daughter to Jerusalem and would not allow any substitution. This meant that, in the extreme case, one body no longer belonged to members of the Romanov family. Later, doubts arose about the identity of the rest of the remains. On the skull, which was previously identified as the skull of the emperor, there was no callus, which could not disappear even after so many years after death. This mark appeared on the skull of Nicholas II after the assassination attempt on him in Japan. In Yurovsky's protocol it was said that the tsar was killed by a shot at point-blank range, while the executioner shot in the head. Even if we take into account the imperfection of the weapon, at least one bullet hole must have remained in the skull. However, it does not have both inlet and outlet holes.

It is possible that the 1993 reports were fake. Need to find the remains of the royal family? Please, here they are. Conduct an examination to prove their authenticity? Here is the test result! In the 1990s, there were all conditions for myth-making. No wonder the Russian Orthodox Church was so cautious, not wanting to recognize the discovered bones and rank the emperor and his family among the martyrs ...

Again, talk began that the Romanovs were not killed, but hidden in order to be used in some kind of political game in the future. Could Nikolai live in the Soviet Union under a false name with his family? On the one hand, this possibility cannot be ruled out. The country is huge, there are many corners in it in which no one would recognize Nicholas. The Romanov family could also be settled in some kind of shelter, where they would be completely isolated from contacts with the outside world, and therefore not dangerous.

On the other hand, even if the remains found near Yekaterinburg are the result of falsification, this does not mean at all that there was no execution. They have been able to destroy the bodies of dead enemies and dispel their ashes since time immemorial. To burn a human body, 300–400 kg of wood are needed - in India, thousands of the dead are buried every day using the burning method. So couldn't the killers, who had an unlimited supply of firewood and a fair amount of acid, cover all traces? Relatively recently, in the fall of 2010, during work in the vicinity of the Old Koptyakovskaya road in the Sverdlovsk region. discovered the places where the killers hid jugs of acid. If there was no execution, where did they come from in the Ural wilderness?

Attempts to restore the events that preceded the execution were carried out repeatedly. As you know, after the abdication, the royal family was settled in the Alexander Palace, in August they were transferred to Tobolsk, and later to Yekaterinburg, to the infamous Ipatiev House.

Aviation engineer Petr Duz in the fall of 1941 was sent to Sverdlovsk. One of his duties in the rear was the publication of textbooks and manuals to supply the country's military universities. Familiarizing himself with the property of the publishing house, Duz ended up in the Ipatiev House, in which several nuns and two elderly female archivists lived at that time. When inspecting the premises, Duz, accompanied by one of the women, went down to the basement and drew attention to strange furrows on the ceiling, which ended in deep depressions ...

At work, Peter often visited the Ipatiev House. Apparently, the elderly employees felt trust in him, because one evening they showed him a small closet, in which a white glove, a lady's fan, a ring, several buttons of various sizes lay right on the wall, on rusty nails ... On the chair lay a small Bible in French and a couple of old-fashioned books. According to one of the women, all these things once belonged to members of the royal family.

She also spoke about the last days of the life of the Romanovs, which, according to her, were unbearable. The Chekists who guarded the captives behaved incredibly rudely. All the windows in the house were boarded up. The Chekists explained that these measures were taken for security purposes, but Duzya's interlocutor was convinced that this was one of a thousand ways to humiliate the "former". It should be noted that the Chekists had grounds for concern. According to the memoirs of the archivist, the Ipatiev House was besieged every morning (!) by local residents and monks, who tried to pass notes to the tsar and his relatives, offering to help with household chores.

Of course, this does not justify the behavior of the security officers, but any intelligence officer who is entrusted with the protection of an important person is simply obliged to limit his contacts with the outside world. But the behavior of the guards was not limited only to “not allowing” sympathizers to the members of the Romanov family. Many of their antics were simply outrageous. They took particular delight in shocking Nikolai's daughters. They wrote obscene words on the fence and the toilet located in the yard, tried to watch for the girls in the dark corridors. No one has mentioned such details yet. Therefore, Duz listened attentively to the story of the interlocutor. She also told a lot about the last minutes of the life of the imperial family.

The Romanovs were ordered to go down to the basement. The emperor asked to bring a chair for his wife. Then one of the guards left the room, and Yurovsky took out a revolver and began to line everyone up in one line. Most versions say that the executioners fired in volleys. But the inhabitants of the Ipatiev House recalled that the shots were chaotic.

Nicholas was killed immediately. But his wife and princesses were destined for a more difficult death. The fact is that diamonds were sewn into their corsets. In some places they were located in several layers. The bullets ricocheted off this layer and went into the ceiling. The execution dragged on. When the Grand Duchesses were already lying on the floor, they were considered dead. But when they began to lift one of them to load the body into the car, the princess groaned and stirred. Because the security officers began to finish off her and her sisters with bayonets.

After the execution, no one was allowed into the Ipatiev House for several days - apparently, attempts to destroy the bodies took a lot of time. A week later, the Chekists allowed several nuns to enter the house - the premises had to be put in order. Among them was Duzya's interlocutor. According to him, she recalled with horror the picture that had opened in the basement of the Ipatiev House. There were many bullet holes on the walls, and the floor and walls in the room where the execution was carried out were covered in blood.

Subsequently, experts from the Main State Center for Forensic and Forensic Expertise of the Russian Ministry of Defense restored the picture of the execution to the nearest minute and to the millimeter. Using a computer, based on the testimony of Grigory Nikulin and Anatoly Yakimov, they established where and at what moment the executioners and their victims were. Computer reconstruction showed that the Empress and the Grand Duchesses were trying to shield Nikolai from bullets.

Ballistic examination established many details: from which weapons the members of the imperial family were liquidated, how many shots were approximately fired. It took the Chekists at least 30 times to pull the trigger...

Every year, the chances of discovering the real remains of the Romanov royal family (if the Yekaterinburg skeletons are recognized as fake) are fading. This means that there is no hope of ever finding an exact answer to the questions: who died in the basement of the Ipatiev House, did any of the Romanovs manage to escape, and what was the fate of the heirs to the Russian throne...