Bolsheviks and execution royal family

Over the past decade, the topic of the execution of the royal family has become relevant in connection with the discovery of many new facts. Documents and materials reflecting this tragic event began to be actively published, causing various comments, questions, and doubts. That is why it is important to analyze the available written sources.

Emperor Nicholas II

Perhaps the earliest historical source- these are the materials of the investigator for especially important cases of the Omsk District Court during the period of the Kolchak army in Siberia and the Urals N.A. Sokolov, who, in hot pursuit, conducted the first investigation of this crime.

Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov

He found traces of fires, fragments of bones, pieces of clothing, jewelry, and other fragments, but did not find the remains of the royal family.

According to a modern investigator, V.N. Solovyov, manipulations with the corpses of the royal family due to the sloppiness of the Red Army would not fit into any schemes of the smartest investigator for especially important cases. The subsequent advance of the Red Army shortened the search time. N.A. version Sokolov was that the corpses were dismembered and burned. Those who deny the authenticity of the royal remains rely on this version.

Another group of written sources are the memoirs of the participants in the execution of the royal family. They often contradict each other. They clearly show a desire to exaggerate the role of the authors in this atrocity. Among them - “a note by Ya.M. Yurovsky”, which was dictated by Yurovsky to the chief keeper of party secrets, Academician M.N. Pokrovsky back in 1920, when information about the investigation by N.A. Sokolov has not yet appeared in print.

Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky

In the 60s, the son of Ya.M. Yurovsky donated copies of his father's memoirs to the museum and archive so that his "feat" would not be lost in the documents.
Also preserved are the memoirs of the head of the Ural workers' squad, a member of the Bolshevik Party since 1906, an employee of the NKVD since 1920. P.Z. Ermakov, who was instructed to organize the burial, for he, as a local resident, knew the surroundings well. Ermakov reported that the corpses were burned to ashes, and the ashes were buried. His memoirs contain many factual errors, which are refuted by the testimony of other witnesses. Memories date back to 1947. It was important for the author to prove that the order of the Yekaterinburg Executive Committee: “to shoot and bury them so that no one ever found their corpses” was fulfilled, the grave does not exist.

The Bolshevik leadership also created considerable confusion by trying to cover up the traces of the crime.

Initially, it was assumed that the Romanovs would await trial in the Urals. Materials were collected in Moscow, L.D. was preparing to become a prosecutor. Trotsky. But Civil War aggravated the situation.
At the beginning of the summer of 1918, it was decided to take out royal family from Tobolsk, since the local council was headed by the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

transfer of the Romanov family to Yekaterinburg Chekists

This was done on behalf of Ya.M. Sverdlov, the Extraordinary Commissar of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Myachin (aka Yakovlev, Stoyanovich).

Nicholas II with his daughters in Tobolsk

In 1905, he became famous as a member of one of the most daring gangs that robbed trains. Subsequently, all the militants - Myachin's associates - were arrested, imprisoned or shot. He manages to escape abroad with gold and jewels. Until 1917 he lived in Capri, where he was acquainted with Lunacharsky and Gorky, sponsored underground schools and printing houses of the Bolsheviks in Russia.

Myachin tried to direct the royal train from Tobolsk to Omsk, but a detachment of Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks accompanying the train, learning about the change in route, blocked the road with machine guns. The Ural Council repeatedly demanded that the royal family be placed at its disposal. Myachin, with the approval of Sverdlov, was forced to yield.

Konstantin Alekseevich Myachin

Nicholas II and his family were taken to Yekaterinburg.

This fact reflects the confrontation in the Bolshevik environment over the question of who and how will decide the fate of the royal family. In any alignment of forces, one could hardly hope for a humane outcome, given the mood and track record of the people who made the decisions.
Another memoir appeared in 1956 in Germany. They belong to I.P. Meyer, who was sent to Siberia as a captured soldier of the Austrian army, but the Bolsheviks released him, and he joined the Red Guard. Since Meyer knew foreign languages, then he became a confidant of the international brigade in the Urals military district and worked in the mobilization department of the Soviet Ural Directorate.

I.P. Meyer was an eyewitness to the execution of the royal family. His memoirs supplement the picture of the execution with essential details, details, including the names of the participants, their role in this atrocity, but do not resolve the contradiction that arose in previous sources.

Later, written sources began to be supplemented by material ones. So, in 1978, geologist A. Avdonin found a burial. In 1989, he and M. Kochurov, as well as screenwriter G. Ryabov, spoke about their discovery. In 1991, the ashes were removed. 19 August 1993 prosecutor's office Russian Federation filed a criminal case in connection with the discovery of Yekaterinburg remains. The investigation began to be conducted by the prosecutor-criminalist of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation V.N. Solovyov.

In 1995 V.N. Solovyov managed to get 75 negatives in Germany, which were made in hot pursuit in the Ipatiev House by the investigator Sokolov and were considered lost forever: toys of Tsarevich Alexei, the bedroom of the Grand Duchesses, the execution room and other details. Unknown originals of N.A.’s materials were also delivered to Russia. Sokolov.

Material sources made it possible to answer the question of whether there was a burial of the royal family, and whose remains were found near Yekaterinburg. To this end, numerous Scientific research in which more than a hundred of the most authoritative Russian and foreign scientists took part.

The latest methods were used to identify the remains, including DNA testing, which was assisted by some of the current reigning persons and other genetic relatives of the Russian emperor. To eliminate any doubts in the conclusions of numerous examinations, the remains of George Alexandrovich, the brother of Nicholas II, were exhumed.

Georgy Alexandrovich Romanov

Modern achievements of science have helped to restore the picture of events, despite some discrepancies in written sources. This made it possible for the government commission to confirm the identity of the remains and adequately bury Nicholas II, the Empress, the three Grand Duchesses and courtiers.

There is another controversial issue related to the tragedy of July 1918. For a long time it was believed that the decision to execute the royal family was made in Yekaterinburg by the local authorities at their own peril and risk, and Moscow found out about this after the fait accompli. This needs to be clarified.

According to the memoirs of I.P. Meyer, on July 7, 1918, a meeting of the Revolutionary Committee was held, which was chaired by A.G. Beloborodov. He offered to send F. Goloshchekin to Moscow and get the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, since the Ural Council could not decide on its own the fate of the Romanovs.

It was also proposed to give Goloshchekin an accompanying paper outlining the position of the Ural authorities. However, the resolution of F. Goloshchekin was adopted by a majority of votes, that the Romanovs deserve death. Goloshchekin, as an old friend Ya.M. Sverdlov, was nevertheless sent to Moscow for consultations with the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov.

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov

On July 14, F. Goloshchekin, at a meeting of the revolutionary tribunal, made a report on his trip and on negotiations with Ya.M. Sverdlov about the Romanovs. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not want the tsar and his family to be taken to Moscow. The Ural Soviet and the local revolutionary headquarters must decide for themselves what to do with them. But the decision of the Ural Revolutionary Committee had already been made in advance. This means that Moscow did not object to Goloshchekin.

E.S. Radzinsky published a telegram from Yekaterinburg, in which, a few hours before the assassination of the royal family, V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, G.E. Zinoviev. G. Safarov and F. Goloshchekin, who sent this telegram, asked to be informed immediately if there were any objections. Judging by further developments, there were no objections.

The answer to the question, but by whose decision the royal family was put to death, was also given by L.D. Trotsky in his memoirs relating to 1935: “The liberals were inclined, as it were, to the fact that the Ural executive committee, cut off from Moscow, acted independently. This is not true. The decision was made in Moscow. Trotsky reported that he proposed a public trial in order to achieve a wide propaganda effect. The progress of the process was to be broadcast throughout the country and commented on every day.

IN AND. Lenin reacted positively to this idea, but expressed doubts about its feasibility. There might not be enough time. Later, Trotsky learned from Sverdlov about the execution of the royal family. To the question: “Who decided?” Ya.M. Sverdlov replied: “We decided here. Ilyich believed that it was impossible to leave us a living banner for them, especially in the current difficult conditions. These diary entries by L.D. Trotsky were not intended for publication, did not respond "to the topic of the day", were not expressed in polemics. The degree of reliability of the presentation in them is great.

Lev Davydovich Trotsky

There is another clarification by L.D. Trotsky concerning the authorship of the idea of ​​regicide. In the drafts of the unfinished chapters of the biography of I.V. Stalin, he wrote about the meeting between Sverdlov and Stalin, where the latter spoke in favor of a death sentence for the tsar. At the same time, Trotsky did not rely on his own memories, but quoted the memoirs of the Soviet functionary Besedovsky, who had defected to the West. This data needs to be verified.

Message from Ya.M. Sverdlov at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on July 18 about the execution of the Romanov family was greeted with applause and recognition that in the current situation the Ural Regional Council did the right thing. And at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, Sverdlov announced this by the way, without causing any discussion.

Trotsky outlined the most complete ideological justification for the execution of the royal family by the Bolsheviks with elements of pathos: “In essence, the decision was not only expedient, but also necessary. The severity of the reprisals showed everyone that we would fight mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the royal family was needed not only to confuse, horrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up their own ranks, to show that there was no retreat, that complete victory or complete death lay ahead. There were probably doubts and shaking of heads in the intelligent circles of the party. But the masses of workers and soldiers did not doubt for a moment: they would not have understood or accepted any other decision. Lenin felt this very well: the ability to think and feel for the masses and with the masses was highly characteristic of him, especially at great political turns ... "

The fact of the execution of not only the king, but also his wife and children, the Bolsheviks tried to hide for some time, and even from their own. So, one of the prominent diplomats of the USSR, A.A. Ioffe, officially reported only the execution of Nicholas II. He did not know anything about the wife and children of the king and thought that they were alive. His inquiries to Moscow yielded no results, and only from an informal conversation with F.E. Dzerzhinsky, he managed to find out the truth.

“Let Ioffe know nothing,” said Vladimir Ilyich, according to Dzerzhinsky, “it will be easier for him to lie there, in Berlin ...” The text of the telegram about the execution of the royal family was intercepted by the White Guards who entered Yekaterinburg. Investigator Sokolov deciphered and published it.

The royal family from left to right: Olga, Alexandra Feodorovna, Alexei, Maria, Nicholas II, Tatyana, Anastasia

The fate of the people involved in the liquidation of the Romanovs is of interest.

F.I. Goloshchekin (Isai Goloshchekin), (1876-1941), Secretary of the Ural Regional Committee and member of the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Military Commissar of the Ural Military District, was arrested on October 15, 1939 at the direction of L.P. Beria and was shot as an enemy of the people on October 28, 1941.

A.G. Beloborodoe (1891-1938), chairman of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, participated in the twenties in the inner-party struggle on the side of L.D. Trotsky. Beloborodoe provided Trotsky with his accommodation when the latter was evicted from the Kremlin apartment. In 1927, he was expelled from the CPSU (b) for factional activities. Later, in 1930, Beloborodov was reinstated in the party as a repentant oppositionist, but this did not save him. In 1938 he was repressed.

As for the direct participant in the execution, Ya.M. Yurovsky (1878-1938), a member of the board of the regional Cheka, it is known that his daughter Rimma suffered from repression.

Yurovsky's assistant in the "House of Special Purpose" P.L. Voikov (1888-1927), People's Commissar for Supply in the government of the Urals, when appointed in 1924 as the USSR ambassador to Poland, for a long time could not receive an agrement from the Polish government, since his personality was associated with the execution of the royal family.

Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov

G.V. Chicherin gave the Polish authorities a characteristic explanation on this matter: "... Hundreds and thousands of fighters for the freedom of the Polish people, who died over the course of a century on the royal gallows and in Siberian prisons, would have reacted differently to the fact of the destruction of the Romanovs, than this could be concluded from your messages." In 1927 P.L. Voikov was killed in Poland by one of the monarchists for participating in the massacre of the royal family.

Of interest is another name in the list of persons who took part in the execution of the royal family. This is Imre Nagy. The leader of the Hungarian events of 1956 was in Russia, where in 1918 he joined the RCP (b), then served in the Special Department of the Cheka, and later collaborated with the NKVD. However, his autobiography refers to his stay not in the Urals, but in Siberia, in the region of Verkhneudinsk (Ulan-Ude).

Until March 1918, he was in the prisoner of war camp in Berezovka, in March he joined the Red Guard, and participated in the battles on Lake Baikal. In September 1918, his detachment, located on the Soviet-Mongolian border, in Troitskosavsk, was then disarmed and arrested by the Czechoslovaks in Berezovka. Then he ended up in a military town near Irkutsk. From curriculum vitae It can be seen how mobile the life of the future leader of the Hungarian Communist Party was in Russia during the execution of the royal family.

In addition, the information indicated by him in his autobiography did not always correspond to personal data. However, direct evidence of the involvement of Imre Nagy, and not his probable namesake, in the execution of the royal family, on this moment are not tracked.

Imprisonment in the Ipatiev House

Ipatiev house

The Romanovs and their servants in the Ipatiev house

The Romanov family was placed in a "special purpose house" - the requisitioned mansion of a retired military engineer N. N. Ipatiev. Doctor E. S. Botkin, chamber footman A. E. Trupp, maid of the Empress A. S. Demidov, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived here with the Romanov family.

The house is good and clean. Four rooms were assigned to us: a corner bedroom, a dressing room, a dining room next to it with windows overlooking the garden and a view of the low part of the city, and, finally, a spacious hall with an archway without doors. placed in the following way: Alix [Empress], Maria and I are three in the bedroom, a shared restroom, in the dining room - N[yuta] Demidova, in the hall - Botkin, Chemodurov and Sednev. Near the entrance is the guard officer's room. The guard was placed in two rooms near the dining room. To go to the bathroom and W.C. [water closet], you need to pass by the sentry at the door of the guardhouse. A very high plank fence was built around the house, two fathoms from the windows; there was a chain of sentries, in the garden too.

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

A. D. Avdeev was appointed commandant of the "house of special purpose".

Execution

From the memoirs of the participants in the execution, it is known that they did not know in advance how the “execution” would be carried out. Various options were offered: to stab the arrested with daggers during sleep, to throw grenades into the room with them, to shoot them. According to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the issue of the procedure for carrying out the "execution" was resolved with the participation of employees of the UraloblChK.

At 1:30 a.m. from July 16 to 17, a truck for transporting corpses arrived at Ipatiev's house, an hour and a half late. After that, doctor Botkin was awakened, who was told that everyone urgently needed to go downstairs due to the alarming situation in the city and the danger of staying on the top floor. It took about 30-40 minutes to get ready.

Evgeny Botkin, life medic Ivan Kharitonov, cook Alexei Trupp, valet Anna Demidova, maid

moved to the basement room (Alexei, who could not walk, was carried by Nicholas II in his arms). There were no chairs in the basement, then, at the request of Alexandra Feodorovna, two chairs were brought. Alexandra Fedorovna and Alexei sat on them. The rest were placed along the wall. Yurovsky brought in the firing squad and read out the verdict. Nicholas II only had time to ask: “What?” (other sources render Nikolai's last words as "Huh?" or "How, how? Re-read"). Yurovsky gave the command, indiscriminate shooting began.

The executioners did not manage to immediately kill Alexei, the daughters of Nicholas II, the maid A.S. Demidov, Dr. E.S. Botkin. There was a cry from Anastasia, the maid Demidova rose to her feet, Alexei remained alive for a long time. Some of them were shot; the survivors, according to the investigation, were finished off with a bayonet by P.Z. Ermakov.

According to Yurovsky's memoirs, the shooting was erratic: many were probably shooting from the next room, over the threshold, and the bullets ricocheted off the stone wall. At the same time, one of the shooters was slightly wounded (“A bullet from one of the shooters from behind buzzed past my head, and one, I don’t remember, either hand, palm, or touched a finger and shot through”).

According to T. Manakova, during the execution, two dogs of the royal family, who raised a howl, were also killed - Tatiana's French bulldog Ortino and Anastasia's royal spaniel Jimmy (Jammy) Anastasia. The third dog, Aleksey Nikolaevich's spaniel named Joy, was spared his life because she did not howl. The spaniel was later taken in by the guard Letemin, who because of this was identified and arrested by the whites. Subsequently, according to the story of Bishop Vasily (Rodzianko), Joy was taken to the UK by an immigrant officer and handed over to the British royal family.

after the execution

The basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was shot. GA RF

From the speech of Ya. M. Yurovsky before the old Bolsheviks in Sverdlovsk in 1934

The younger generation may not understand us. They may reproach us for killing the girls, for killing the boy-heir. But to today girls-boys would grow up ... into what?

In order to muffle the shots, a truck was brought near the Ipatiev House, but the shots were still heard in the city. In Sokolov's materials, in particular, there are testimonies about this by two random witnesses, the peasant Buivid and the night watchman Tsetsegov.

According to Richard Pipes, immediately after this, Yurovsky harshly suppresses the attempts of the guards to plunder the jewelry they discovered, threatening to be shot. After that, he instructed P.S. Medvedev to organize the cleaning of the premises, and he left to destroy the corpses.

The exact text of the sentence pronounced by Yurovsky before the execution is unknown. In the materials of the investigator N. A. Sokolov, there are testimonies of Yakimov, the guard guard, who claimed, with reference to the guard Kleshchev who was watching this scene, that Yurovsky said: “Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they didn’t have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves.”

M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin) described this scene as follows:

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Medvedev-Kudrin

- Nikolai Alexandrovich! Attempts by your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And so, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and cuts the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission to put an end to the house of the Romanovs!

In the memoirs of Yurovsky's assistant G.P. Nikulin, this episode is stated as follows: Comrade Yurovsky uttered such a phrase that:

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death."

Yurovsky himself could not remember the exact text: “... I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following, that his royal relatives and relatives both in the country and abroad were trying to release him, and that the Soviet of Workers' Deputies decided to shoot them.”

On July 17, in the afternoon, several members of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council contacted Moscow by telegraph (the telegram is marked that it was received at 12 o’clock) and reported that Nicholas II had been shot and his family had been evacuated. The editor of the Uralsky Rabochy, a member of the executive committee of the Uraloblsovet V. Vorobyov later claimed that they “were very uneasy when they approached the apparatus: the former tsar was shot by the decision of the presidium of the Regional Council, and it was not known how the central government would react to this“ arbitrariness ”...”. The reliability of this evidence, wrote G.Z. Ioffe, cannot be verified.

Investigator N. Sokolov claimed that he had found a ciphered telegram from the chairman of the Ural Regional Executive Committee A. Beloborodov to Moscow, dated 21:00 on July 17, which allegedly was deciphered only in September 1920. It reported: “To the Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars N.P. Gorbunov: tell Sverdlov that the whole family suffered the same fate as the head. Officially, the family will die during the evacuation.” Sokolov concluded: it means that on the evening of July 17, Moscow knew about the death of the entire royal family. However, the minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on July 18 speak only of the execution of Nicholas II.

Destruction and burial of the remains

Ganinsky ravines - the burial place of the Romanovs

Yurovsky's version

According to Yurovsky's memoirs, he went to the mine at three o'clock in the morning on July 17th. Yurovsky reports that Goloshchekin must have ordered P. Z. Yermakov to carry out the burial. However, things did not go as smoothly as we would like: Yermakov brought too many people as a funeral team (“Why there are so many of them, I still don’t know, I heard only separate cries - we thought that they would give us them alive, but here, it turns out, they are dead”); truck stuck; jewels sewn into the clothes of the Grand Duchesses were discovered, some of Yermakov's people began to appropriate them. Yurovsky ordered to put guards on the truck. The bodies were loaded onto spans. On the way and near the mine planned for burial, strangers met. Yurovsky assigned people to cordon off the area, as well as to inform the village that Czechoslovaks were operating in the area and that it was forbidden to leave the village under threat of execution. In an effort to get rid of the presence of an overly large funeral team, he sends some people to the city "as unnecessary." Orders to make fires to burn clothes as possible evidence.

From the memoirs of Yurovsky (spelling preserved):

The daughters wore bodices so well made of solid diamond and other valuable stones, which were not only receptacles for valuables, but at the same time protective armor.

That is why neither the bullet nor the bayonet gave results when shooting and hitting the bayonet. By the way, no one is to blame for these death throes of theirs, except for themselves. These values ​​turned out to be only about (half) a pood. Greed was so great that Alexandra Fedorovna, by the way, was just a huge piece of round gold wire, bent in the form of a bracelet, weighing about a pound ... Those parts of the valuables that were discovered during excavations undoubtedly belonged to separately sewn things and remained in the ashes of fires during burning.

After seizing valuables and burning clothes on fires, the corpses were thrown into the mine, but “... a new hassle. The water covered the bodies a little, what to do here? The funeral team unsuccessfully tried to bring down the mine with grenades (“bombs”), after which Yurovsky, according to him, finally came to the conclusion that the burial of the corpses had failed, since they were easy to detect and, in addition, there were witnesses that something was happening here. Leaving the guards and taking valuables, at about two o'clock in the afternoon (in the earlier version of the memoirs - "at 10-11 am") on July 17, Yurovsky went to the city. I arrived at the Ural Regional Executive Committee and reported on the situation. Goloshchekin summoned Ermakov and sent him to retrieve the corpses. Yurovsky went to the city executive committee to its chairman, S. E. Chutskaev, for advice on a place for burial. Chutskaev reported on deep abandoned mines on the Moscow Trakt. Yurovsky went to inspect these mines, but he could not get to the place right away due to a car breakdown, he had to walk. Returned on requisitioned horses. During this time, another plan appeared - to burn the corpses.

Yurovsky was not quite sure that the incineration would be successful, so the plan to bury the corpses in the mines of the Moscow Tract remained an option. In addition, he had the idea, in case of any failure, to bury the bodies in groups in different places on a clay road. Thus, there were three options for action. Yurovsky went to Voikov, the Commissar of Supply of the Urals, to get gasoline or kerosene, as well as sulfuric acid to disfigure faces, and shovels. Having received this, they loaded it onto carts and sent it to the location of the corpses. A truck was sent there. Yurovsky himself stayed behind to wait for Polushin, "the 'specialist' incineration," and waited for him until 11 pm, but he never arrived because, as Yurovsky later learned, he had fallen off his horse and injured his leg. At about 12 o'clock in the night, Yurovsky, not counting on the reliability of the car, went to the place where the bodies of the dead were, on horseback, but this time another horse crushed his leg, so that he could not move for an hour.

Yurovsky arrived at the scene at night. Work was underway to retrieve the bodies. Yurovsky decided to bury several corpses along the way. By dawn on July 18, the pit was almost ready, but a stranger appeared nearby. I had to abandon this plan. After waiting for the evening, we boarded the cart (the truck was waiting in a place where it should not get stuck). Then they were driving a truck, and it got stuck. Midnight was approaching, and Yurovsky decided that it was necessary to bury him somewhere here, since it was dark and no one could be a witness to the burial.

... everyone was so devilishly tired that they no longer wanted to dig a new grave, but, as always happens in such cases, two or three got down to business, then others set to work, immediately lit a fire, and while the grave was being prepared, we burned two corpses: Alexei and, by mistake, instead of Alexandra Feodorovna, they burned, obviously, Demidova. A hole was dug at the place of burning, the bones were laid down, leveled, a large fire was lit again and all traces were hidden with ashes.

Before putting the rest of the corpses in the pit, we doused them with sulfuric acid, filled up the pit, covered it with sleepers, the truck passed empty, compacted the sleepers a little and put an end to it.

I. Rodzinsky and M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin) also left their memories of the burial of corpses (Medvedev, by his own admission, did not personally participate in the burial and retold the events from the words of Yurovsky and Rodzinsky). According to the memoirs of Rodzinsky himself:

The site where the remains of the alleged bodies of the Romanovs were found

We have now cleared this quagmire. She is deep God knows where. Well, here a part of these same darlings was decomposed and they began to fill it with sulfuric acid, they disfigured everything, and then it all turned into a quagmire. Nearby was Railway. We brought rotten sleepers, laid a pendulum through the very quagmire. They laid out these sleepers in the form of an abandoned bridge over a quagmire, and the rest at some distance they began to burn.

But now, I remember, Nikolai was burned, there was this same Botkin, I can’t tell you for sure now, now that’s a memory. How many we burned, either four, or five, or six people were burned. Who, I don't remember exactly. I do remember Nicholas. Botkin and, in my opinion, Alexei.

The execution without trial and investigation of the king, his wife, children, including minors, was another step along the path of lawlessness, neglect human life, terror. Many problems of the Soviet state began to be solved with the help of violence. The Bolsheviks who unleashed terror often became its victims themselves.
The burial of the last Russian emperor eighty years after the execution of the royal family is another indicator of the inconsistency and unpredictability of Russian history.

“Church on Blood” on the site of the Ipatiev House

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

Stanislav Jerzy Lec

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

History of events

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

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

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

Arrest of members of the royal family

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

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

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

What is the role of the British government?

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

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

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

When was the royal family of the Romanovs executed?

Michael's murder

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

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

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

The execution of the family of Nicholas 2

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

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

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

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

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

Who killed the family of Nicholas 2?

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

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

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

Reprisal against the rest of the family

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

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

Reaction to the assassination of the Romanov imperial family

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

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

Investigations into the murder of the family of Nicholas 2

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

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

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

The sequence of the destruction of the Romanov dynasty

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

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

Who was next in line of succession? Nicholas 2 and his son, Tsarevich Alexei. The candidacy of Nicholas 2 is controversial here, in the end he renounced power on his own. Although in his attitude everyone could play the other way, because in those days almost all laws were violated. But Tsarevich Alexei was a clear contender. The father had no legal right to relinquish the throne for his son. As a result, the entire family of Nicholas 2 was shot on July 17, 1918.

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

Alternative versions of the tragedy

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

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

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

Canonization of the royal family

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

A few words about the Ipatiev house

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

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

Summarizing

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

"The world will never know what we did to them," boasted one of the executioners, Petr Voikov. But it turned out differently. Over the next 100 years, the truth found its way, and today a majestic temple has been built on the site of the murder.

About the reasons and main actors murders of the royal family tells Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Lavrov.

Maria Pozdnyakova,« AiF”: It is known that the Bolsheviks were going to hold a trial of Nicholas II, but then abandoned this idea. Why?

Vladimir Lavrov: Indeed, the Soviet government, headed by Lenin in January 1918 announced that the trial of the former emperor Nicholas II will. It was assumed that the main charge would be Bloody Sunday - January 9, 1905. However, Lenin in the end could not help but realize that this tragedy did not guarantee a death sentence. Firstly, Nicholas II did not order the execution of workers, he was not in St. Petersburg at all that day. And secondly, by that time the Bolsheviks themselves had stained themselves with “Bloody Friday”: on January 5, 1918, thousands of peaceful demonstrations in support of the Constituent Assembly were shot in Petrograd. Moreover, they were shot at the same places where people died on Bloody Sunday. How then to throw in the face of the king that he is bloody? And Lenin with Dzerzhinsky then what?

But let's assume that any head of state can find fault. But what is the fault Alexandra Fedorovna? Is that the wife? And why judge the children of the sovereign? Women and a teenager would have to be released from custody right there, in the courtroom, recognizing that the Soviet government repressed the innocent.

In March 1918, the Bolsheviks concluded a separate Brest Peace with the German aggressors. The Bolsheviks gave Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, pledged to demobilize the army and navy and pay an indemnity in gold. Nicholas II at a public trial after such a peace could turn from an accused into an accuser, qualifying the actions of the Bolsheviks themselves as treason. In a word, Lenin did not dare to sue Nicholas II.

Izvestia of July 19, 1918 opened with this publication. Photo: Public Domain

- IN Soviet time the execution of the royal family was presented as an initiative of the Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks. But who is really responsible for this crime?

— In the 1960s. former bodyguard of Lenin Akimov said that he personally sent a telegram from Vladimir Ilyich to Yekaterinburg with a direct order to shoot the tsar. This testimony confirmed the memories Yurovsky, commandant of the Ipatiev House, and the head of his security Ermakova, who previously admitted that they had received a firing telegram from Moscow.

Also revealed was the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) of May 19, 1918 with the order Yakov Sverdlov deal with the work of Nicholas II. Therefore, the tsar and his family were sent specifically to Yekaterinburg, Sverdlov's fiefdom, where all his friends from underground work in pre-revolutionary Russia were. On the eve of the massacre, one of the leaders of the Yekaterinburg communists Goloshchekin came to Moscow, lived in Sverdlov's apartment, received instructions from him.

The day after the massacre, on July 18, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced that Nicholas II had been shot, and his wife and children had been evacuated to a safe place. That is, Sverdlov and Lenin deceived Soviet people, stating that the spouse and children are alive. They deceived because they perfectly understood: in the eyes of the public, killing innocent women and a 13-year-old boy is a terrible crime.

- There is a version that the family was killed because of the offensive of the whites. Like, the Whites could return the Romanovs to the throne.

- None of the leaders of the white movement was going to restore the monarchy in Russia. In addition, the offensive of the whites was not lightning fast. The Bolsheviks themselves perfectly evacuated themselves and seized property. So it was not difficult to take out the royal family.

The real reason for the destruction of the family of Nicholas II is different: they were a living symbol of the great thousand-year-old Orthodox Russia, which Lenin hated. In addition, in June-July 1918, a large-scale Civil War broke out in the country. Lenin had to rally his party. The murder of the royal family was a demonstration that the Rubicon had been passed: either we win at any cost, or we will have to answer for everything.

- Did the royal family have a chance for salvation?

— Yes, if their English relatives had not betrayed them. In March 1917, when the family of Nicholas II was under arrest in Tsarskoye Selo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government Milyukov offered the option of her going to the UK. Nicholas II agreed to leave. A George V, the English king and at the same time cousin of Nicholas II, agreed to accept the Romanov family. But a few days later, George V took his royal word back. Although in letters George V swore to Nicholas II in his friendship until the end of days! The British betrayed not just the king of a foreign power - they betrayed their close relatives, Alexandra Fedorovna - the beloved granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. But George V, also a grandson of Victoria, obviously did not want Nicholas II to remain a living center of attraction for Russian patriotic forces. rebirth strong Russia was not in the interest of Great Britain. And the family of Nicholas II had no other options to escape.

- Did the royal family understand that its days were numbered?

- Yes. Even the children knew that death was coming. Alexei once said: “If they kill, then at least they don’t torture.” As if he had a presentiment that death at the hands of the Bolsheviks would be painful. But even in the revelations of the killers, not the whole truth is told. No wonder the regicide Voikov said: "The world will never know what we did to them."

The murder of the Romanov family gave rise to many rumors, speculation, and we will try to figure out who ordered the assassination of the king.

Version One "Secret Directive"

One version, often and quite unanimously favored by Western scholars, is that all the Romanovs were destroyed in accordance with some kind of "secret directive" received from the government from Moscow.

It was this version that the investigator Sokolov adhered to, setting it out in his book full of various documents about the murder of the royal family. The same point of view is expressed by two other authors who personally took part in the investigation in 1919: General Dieterikhs, who was instructed to “observe” the progress of the investigation, and Robert Wilton, a correspondent for the London Times.

The books they wrote are the most important sources for understanding the dynamics of the development of events, but - like Sokolov's book - they are distinguished by a certain tendentiousness: Dieterichs and Wilton strive at all costs to prove that the Bolsheviks who operated in were monsters and criminals, but only pawns in the hands of "non-Russian" elements, that is, a handful of Jews.

In some right-wing circles of the white movement - namely, the authors we mentioned adjoined to them - anti-Semitic sentiments manifested themselves at that time in extreme forms: insisting on the existence of a conspiracy of the “Jewish-Masonic” elite, they explained by this all the events that had taken place, from the revolution to the murder of the Romanovs, blaming only the Jews for the deed.

We know almost nothing about the possible "secret directive" that came from Moscow, but we are well aware of the intentions and movements of various members of the Ural Council.

The Kremlin continued to evade making any concrete decision regarding the fate of the imperial family. Perhaps, at first, the Moscow leadership thought about secret negotiations with Germany and intended to use the former tsar as their trump card. But then, once again, the principle of “proletarian justice” prevailed: they were to be judged in an open show trial and thereby demonstrate to the people and the whole world the grandiose meaning of the revolution.

Trotsky, filled with romantic fanaticism, saw himself as a public accuser and dreamed of experiencing moments worthy of the Great french revolution. Sverdlov was instructed to deal with this issue, and the Ural Council was to prepare the process itself.

However, Moscow was too far from Yekaterinburg and could not fully assess the situation in the Urals, which was rapidly escalating: the White Cossacks and White Czechs successfully and quickly advanced towards Yekaterinburg, and the Red Army fled without offering resistance.

The situation became critical, and it even seemed that the revolution could hardly be saved; in this difficult situation When Soviet power could fall any minute, the very idea of ​​holding a show trial seemed anachronistic and unrealistic.

There is evidence that the Presidium of the Ural Council and the regional Cheka discussed the fate of the Romanovs with the leadership of the "center", and precisely in connection with the complicated situation.

In addition, it is known that at the end of June 1918, the military commissar of the Ural region and a member of the Presidium of the Ural Council Philip Goloshchekin went to Moscow to decide the fate of the imperial family. We do not know exactly how these meetings with government representatives ended: we only know that Goloshchekin was received at the house of Sverdlov, his great friend, and that he returned to Yekaterinburg on July 14, two days before the fateful night.

The only source that speaks of the existence of a "secret directive" from Moscow is Trotsky's diary, in which the former People's Commissar claims that he only learned about the execution of the Romanovs in August 1918 and that Sverdlov informed him about it.

However, the significance of this evidence is not too great, since we know another statement by the same Trotsky. The fact is that in the thirties, memoirs of a certain Besedovsky, a former Soviet diplomat who fled to the West, were published in Paris. An interesting detail: Besedovsky worked together with the Soviet ambassador in Warsaw, Piotr Voykov, an "old Bolshevik" who made a dizzying career.

It was the same Voikov who, while still the food commissar of the Ural region, took out sulfuric acid to pour it over the corpses of the Romanovs. Having become an ambassador, he himself will die a violent death on the platform of the Warsaw railway station: on June 7, 1927, Voikov will be shot with seven shots from a pistol by a nineteen-year-old student and “Russian patriot” Boris Koverda, who decided to avenge the Romanovs.

But let us return to Trotsky and Besedovsky. In the memoirs of the former diplomat, a story is given - allegedly recorded from the words of Voikov - about the murder in the Ipatiev House. Among other numerous fictions, there is one absolutely incredible in the book: Stalin turns out to be a direct participant in the massacre.

Subsequently, Besedovsky will become famous precisely as the author of fictional stories; to the accusations that fell from all sides, he answered that no one was interested in the truth and that he main goal was to lead the reader by the nose. Unfortunately, already in exile, blinded by hatred for Stalin, he believed the author of the memoirs and noted the following: “According to Besedovsky, regicide was the work of Stalin ...”

There is one more piece of evidence that can be considered confirmation that the decision to execute the entire imperial family was made "outside" Yekaterinburg. It's about again about Yurovsky's “Note”, which refers to the order for the execution of the Romanovs.

It should not be forgotten that the "Note" was compiled in 1920, two years after the bloody events, and that in some places Yurovsky's memory betrays him: for example, he confuses the name of the cook, calling him Tikhomirov, and not Kharitonov, and also forgets that Demidova was a servant, not a maid of honor.

You can also make another hypothesis, more plausible, and try to explain some not entirely clear places in the "Note" as follows: these brief memories were intended for the historian Pokrovsky and, probably, with the first phrase, the former commandant wanted to minimize the responsibility of the Ural Council and, accordingly, his own. The fact is that by 1920 both the goals of the struggle and the political situation itself had changed dramatically.

In his other memoirs, dedicated to the execution of the royal family and still unpublished (they were written in 1934), he no longer talks about the telegram, and Pokrovsky, touching on this topic, mentions only a certain “telephone message”.

And now let's consider the second version, which, perhaps, looks more plausible and impressed Soviet historians more, since it removed any responsibility from the top party leaders.

According to this version, the decision to execute the Romanovs was made by the members of the Ural Council, and quite independently, without even asking for sanction from the central government. Yekaterinburg politicians "had" to take such extreme measures due to the fact that the whites were advancing rapidly and it was impossible to leave the former sovereign to the enemy: to use the terminology of that time, Nicholas II could become a "living banner of the counter-revolution."

There is no information - or they have not yet been published - that the Uralsovet sent a message to the Kremlin about its decision before the execution.

The Ural Council clearly wanted to hide the truth from the Moscow leaders and, in this regard, gave two false information of paramount importance: on the one hand, it was claimed that the family of Nicholas II was “evacuated to a safe place” and, moreover, the Council allegedly had documents confirming the existence of the White Guard conspiracy.

As for the first statement, there is no doubt that it was a shameful lie; but the second statement turned out to be a hoax: in fact, there could not be documents related to some major White Guard conspiracy, since there were not even individuals capable of organizing and carrying out such a kidnapping. Yes, and the monarchists themselves considered it impossible and undesirable to restore autocracy with Nicholas II as sovereign: the former tsar was no longer interested in anyone and, with general indifference, went towards his tragic death.

The third version: messages "on a direct wire"

In 1928, a certain Vorobyov, the editor of the Uralsky Rabochiy newspaper, wrote his memoirs. Ten years have passed since the execution of the Romanovs, and - no matter how terrible what I will say now - this date was considered as an "anniversary": many works were devoted to this topic, and their authors considered it their duty to boast of direct participation in the murder.

Vorobyov was also a member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Ural Council, and thanks to his memoirs - although there is nothing sensational for us in them - one can imagine how the connection "on a direct wire" between Yekaterinburg and the capital took place: the leaders of the Ural Council dictated the text to the telegraph operator, and in Moscow Sverdlov personally tore off and read the tape. It follows that the Yekaterinburg leaders had the opportunity to contact the "center" at any time. So, the first phrase of Yurovsky's "Notes" - "16.7 a telegram was received from Perm ..." - is inaccurate.

At 9 pm on July 17, 1918, the Ural Council sent a second message to Moscow, but this time a very ordinary telegram. True, there was something special in it: only the address of the recipient and the signature of the sender turned out to be written letters, and the text itself was a set of numbers. Obviously, disorder and negligence have always been constant companions of the Soviet bureaucracy, which at that time was only being formed, and even more so in an environment of hasty evacuation: leaving the city, many valuable documents were forgotten on the Yekaterinburg telegraph. Among them was a copy of the same telegram, and it, of course, ended up in the hands of the whites.

This document came to Sokolov along with the materials of the investigation and, as he writes in his book, immediately attracted his attention, took a lot of his time and caused a lot of trouble. While still in Siberia, the investigator tried in vain to decipher the text, but he succeeded only in September 1920, when he was already living in the West. The telegram was addressed to the Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Gorbunov and signed by the Chairman of the Ural Council Beloborodov. We present it in full below:

"Moscow. Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Gorbunov with a reverse check. Tell Sverdlov that the whole family suffered the same fate as the head. Officially, the family will die during the evacuation. Beloborodov.

Until now, this telegram has been one of the main evidence that all members of the imperial family were killed; therefore, it is not surprising that its authenticity was often called into question, and by those authors who willingly pecked at fantastic versions about one or another of the Romanovs, who allegedly managed to avoid a tragic fate. There are no serious reasons to doubt the authenticity of this telegram, especially when compared with other similar documents.

Sokolov used Beloborodov's message to show the sophisticated cunning of all the Bolshevik leaders; he believed that the deciphered text confirmed the existence of a preliminary agreement between the Yekaterinburg leaders and the "centre". Probably, the investigator was not aware of the first report transmitted “by direct wire”, and the Russian version of his book does not contain the text of this document.

Let us digress, however, from Sokolov's personal point of view; we have two pieces of information transmitted nine hours apart, with the true state of affairs revealed only at the last moment. Giving preference to the version according to which the decision to execute the Romanovs was taken by the Ural Council, one can conclude that, by not immediately reporting everything that happened, the Yekaterinburg leaders wanted to mitigate, possibly, the negative reaction of Moscow.

Two pieces of evidence can be cited to support this version. The first belongs to Nikulin, the deputy commandant of the Ipatiev House (that is, Yurovsky) and his active assistant during the execution of the Romanovs. Nikulin also felt the need to write his memoirs, clearly considering himself - as well as his other "colleagues" - to be important. historical figure; in his memoirs, he openly claims that the decision to destroy the entire royal family was made by the Ural Council, completely independently and "at your own peril and risk."

The second testimony belongs to Vorobyov, already familiar to us. In the book of memoirs, a former member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Ural Council says the following:

“... When it became obvious that we could not hold Yekaterinburg, the question of the fate of the royal family was posed point-blank. There was nowhere to take the former king away, and it was far from safe to take him away. And at one of the meetings of the Regional Council, we decided to shoot the Romanovs, without waiting for their trial.

Obeying the principle of "class hatred", people should not have felt the slightest pity for Nicholas II "Bloody" and utter a word about those who shared his terrible fate with him.

Version Analysis

And now the following quite logical question arises: was it within the competence of the Ural Council to decide on the execution of the Romanovs independently, without even applying for sanction to the central government, thus taking on all political responsibility for what they had done?

The first circumstance that should be taken into account is the outright separatism inherent in many local Soviets during the civil war. In this sense, the Uralsoviet was no exception: it was considered “explosive” and had already managed to openly demonstrate its disagreement with the Kremlin several times. In addition, representatives of the Left Social Revolutionaries and many anarchists were active in the Urals. With their fanaticism, they pushed the Bolsheviks to demonstration actions.

The third spurring circumstance was that some members of the Uralsoviet - including the chairman Beloborodov himself, whose signature is under the second telegraph - adhered to extreme left-wing views; these people have been through long years exiles and royal prisons, hence their specific attitude. Although the members of the Ural Council were relatively young, they all went through the school of professional revolutionaries, and they had years of underground and "serving the cause of the party" behind them.

The struggle against tsarism in any form was the only purpose of their existence, and therefore they did not even have any doubts that the Romanovs, "enemies of the working people", should be destroyed. In that tense situation, when the civil war was raging and the fate of the revolution seemed to hang in the balance, the execution of the imperial family seemed to be a historical necessity, a duty that had to be fulfilled without falling into sympathetic moods.

In 1926, Pavel Bykov, who replaced Beloborodov as Chairman of the Ural Council, wrote a book entitled " Last days Romanovs"; as we will see later, it was the only Soviet source that confirmed the fact of the murder of the royal family, but this book was very soon withdrawn. Here is what Tanyaev writes in his introductory article: “This task was carried out by the Soviet government with its characteristic courage - to take all measures to save the revolution, no matter how arbitrary, lawless and harsh they may seem from the outside.”

And one more thing: “... for the Bolsheviks, the court in no way mattered as a body that clarifies the true guilt of this “holy family”. If the court had any meaning, it was only as a very good agitational tool for the political enlightenment of the masses, and no more. And here is another of the most “interesting” passages from Tanyaev’s preface: “The Romanovs had to be eliminated in an emergency.

The Soviet government in this case showed extreme democracy: it did not make an exception for the all-Russian murderer and shot him on a par with an ordinary bandit. Sofya Alexandrovna, the heroine of A. Rybakov’s novel “Children of the Arbat”, was right, having found the strength to shout in the face of her brother, an unbending Stalinist, the following words: “If the tsar judged you according to your laws, he would have held out for another thousand years ...”