Immediately behind, you can’t help but notice this tall temple and a number of other temple buildings. This is the "Holy Quarter". By the will of fate, three streets named after revolutionaries are limited. Let's head towards it.
On the way there is a monument to Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom. Installed in 2012.
The Church on the Blood was built in 2000-2003. on the site where on the night of July 16 to July 17, 1918, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot. There are photographs of them at the entrance to the temple.
In 1917, after the February Revolution and abdication, the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were exiled to Tobolsk by decision of the Provisional Government.
After the Bolsheviks came to power and the outbreak of the civil war, in April 1918, permission was received from the Presidium (All-Russian Central Executive Committee) of the fourth convocation to transfer the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg in order to take them from there to Moscow for the purpose of their trial.
In Yekaterinburg, a large stone mansion, confiscated from engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, was chosen as the place of imprisonment for Nicholas II and his family. On the night of July 17, 1918, in the basement of this house, Emperor Nicholas II, along with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, children and close associates, were shot, and after that their bodies were taken to the abandoned Ganina Yama mine.
On September 22, 1977, on the recommendation of KGB Chairman Yu.V. Andropov and the instructions of B.N. Yeltsin's house, Ipatiev's, was destroyed. Later, Yeltsin would write in his memoirs: “...sooner or later we will all be ashamed of this barbarity. It will be a shame, but nothing can be corrected...”.
When designing, the plan of the future temple was superimposed on the plan of the demolished Ipatiev house in such a way as to create an analogue of the room where the Royal Family was shot. At the lower level of the temple, a symbolic place for this execution was provided. In fact, the place where the royal family was executed is located outside the temple in the area of the roadway on Karl Liebknecht Street.
The temple is a five-domed structure 60 meters high and with total area 3000 m². The architecture of the building is designed in the Russian-Byzantine style. The vast majority of churches were built in this style during the reign of Nicholas II.
The cross in the center is part of a monument to the royal family going down to the basement before being shot.
Adjacent to the Church on the Blood is the temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the spiritual and educational center “Patriarchal Compound” and the museum of the royal family.
Behind them you can see the Church of the Ascension of the Lord (1782-1818).
And in front of him is the Kharitonov-Rastorguev estate of the early 19th century (architect Malakhov), which became Soviet years Palace of Pioneers. Nowadays it is the City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity “Talentedness and Technology”.
What else is located in the surrounding area? This is the Gazprom tower, which was built in 1976 as the Tourist Hotel.
The former office of the now defunct Transaero airline.
Between them are buildings from the middle of the last century.
Residential building-monument from 1935. Built for railway workers. Very beautiful! Fizkulturnikov Street, on which the building is located, was gradually built up since the 1960s, and as a result, by 2010 it was completely lost. This residential building is the only building listed on a virtually non-existent street; the house is number 30.
Well, now we go to the Gazprom tower - an interesting street begins from there.
The Romanov family was numerous; there were no problems with the successors to the throne. In 1918, after the Bolsheviks shot the emperor, his wife and children, a large number of impostors appeared. Rumors spread that that very night in Yekaterinburg, one of them still survived.
And today many believe that one of the children could have been saved and that their offspring could live among us.
After the massacre of the imperial family, many believed that Anastasia managed to escapeAnastasia was Nikolai's youngest daughter. In 1918, when the Romanovs were executed, Anastasia’s remains were not found in the family’s burial place and rumors spread that the young princess had survived.
People all over the world have been reincarnated as Anastasia. One of the most prominent impostors was Anna Anderson. I think she was from Poland.
Anna imitated Anastasia in her behavior, and rumors that Anastasia was alive spread quite quickly. Many also tried to imitate her sisters and brother. People all over the world tried to cheat, but Russia had the most doppelgängers.
Many believed that the children of Nicholas II survived. But even after the burial of the Romanov family was found, scientists were unable to identify the remains of Anastasia. Most historians still cannot confirm that the Bolsheviks killed Anastasia.
Later, a secret burial was found, in which the remains of the young princess were discovered, and forensic experts were able to prove that she died along with the rest of the family in 1918. Her remains were reburied in 1998.
Scientists were able to compare the DNA of the found remains and modern followers of the royal family Many people believed that the Bolsheviks buried the Romanovs in various places in the Sverdlovsk region. In addition, many were convinced that two of the children were able to escape.
There was a theory that Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria were able to escape from the scene of the terrible execution. In 1976, scientists picked up a trail with the remains of the Romanovs. In 1991, when the era of communism was over, researchers were able to obtain government permission to open the burial site of the Romanovs, the same one left by the Bolsheviks.
But scientists needed DNA analysis to confirm the theory. They asked Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent to provide DNA samples to compare with those of the royal couple. Forensic experts confirmed that the DNA did indeed belong to the Romanovs. As a result of this research, it was possible to confirm that the Bolsheviks buried Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria separately from the rest.
Some people dedicated their free time searching for traces of the family's real burial place In 2007, Sergei Plotnikov, one of the founders of an amateur historical group, made amazing discovery. His group was searching for any facts related to the royal family.
In his free time, Sergei was engaged in searching for the remains of the Romanovs at the supposed site of the first burial. And one day he was lucky, he came across something solid and started digging.
To his surprise, he found several fragments of pelvic and skull bones. After an examination, it was established that these bones belong to the children of Nicholas II.
Few people know that the methods of killing family members differed from each other. After an analysis of the bones of Alexei and Maria, it was found that the bones were severely damaged, but differently than the bones of the emperor himself.
Traces of bullets were found on Nikolai's remains, which means the children were killed in a different way. The rest of the family also suffered in their own ways.
Scientists were able to establish that Alexei and Maria were doused with acid and died from burns. Despite the fact that these two children were buried separately from the rest of the family, they suffered no less.
There was a lot of confusion around the Romanov bones, but in the end scientists were able to establish that they belonged to the family Archaeologists discovered 9 skulls, teeth, bullets of various calibers, fabric from clothes and wires from a wooden box. The remains were determined to be those of a boy and a woman, with approximate ages ranging from 10 to 23 years.
The likelihood that the boy was Tsarevich Alexei, and the girl Princess Maria, is quite high. In addition, there were theories that the government managed to discover the location where the Romanov bones were kept. There were rumors that the remains had been found back in 1979, but the government kept this information secret.
One of the research groups was very close to the truth, but they soon ran out of money In 1990, another group of archaeologists decided to start excavations, in the hope that they would be able to discover some more traces of the location of the remains of the Romanovs.
After several days or even weeks, they dug up an area the size of a football field, but never completed the study because they ran out of money. Surprisingly, Sergei Plotnikov found bone fragments in this very territory.
Due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church demanded more and more confirmation of the authenticity of the Romanov bones, the reburial was postponed several times The Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the fact that the bones actually belonged to the Romanov family. The Church demanded more evidence that these same remains were actually found in the burial of the royal family in Yekaterinburg.
The successors of the Romanov family supported the Russian Orthodox Church, demanding additional research and confirmation that the bones really belong to the children of Nicholas II.
The reburial of the family was postponed many times, as the Russian Orthodox Church each time questioned the correctness of the DNA analysis and the belonging of the bones to the Romanov family. The church asked forensic experts to conduct an additional examination. After scientists finally managed to convince the church that the remains really belonged to the royal family, the Russian Orthodox Church planned a reburial.
The Bolsheviks eliminated the bulk of the imperial family, but their distant relatives are alive to this day The successors of the family tree of the Romanov dynasty live among us. One of the heirs to the royal genes is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and he provided his DNA for research. Prince Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, grandniece of Princess Alexandra, and the great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.
Another relative who helped with DNA identification is Prince Michael of Kent. His grandmother was a cousin of Nicholas II.
There are eight more successors of this family: Hugh Grosvenor, Constantine II, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, Olga Andreevna Romanova, Francis Alexander Matthew, Nicoletta Romanova, Rostislav Romanov. But these relatives did not provide their DNA for analysis, since Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent were recognized as the closest relatives.
Of course the Bolsheviks tried to cover up the traces of their crime The Bolsheviks executed the royal family in Yekaterinburg, and they needed to somehow hide the evidence of the crime.
There are two theories about how the Bolsheviks killed children. According to the first version, they first shot Nikolai, and then put his daughters in a mine where no one could find them. The Bolsheviks tried to blow up the mine, but their plan failed, so they decided to pour acid on the children and burn them.
According to the second version, the Bolsheviks wanted to cremate the bodies of the murdered Alexei and Maria. After several studies, scientists and forensic experts concluded that it was not possible to cremate the bodies.
To be cremated human body, a very high temperature was needed, and the Bolsheviks were in the forest, and they did not have the opportunity to create the necessary conditions. After unsuccessful attempts at cremation, they finally decided to bury the bodies, but divided the family into two graves.
The fact that the family was not buried together explains why not all family members were initially found. This also disproves the theory that Alexei and Maria managed to escape.
By decision of the Russian Orthodox Church, the remains of the Romanovs were buried in one of the churches in St. Petersburg The mystery of the Romanov dynasty rests with their remains in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. After numerous studies, scientists still agreed that the remains belong to Nikolai and his family.
The last farewell ceremony took place in an Orthodox church and lasted three days. During the funeral procession, many still questioned the authenticity of the remains. But scientists say the bones match 97% of the royal family's DNA.
In Russia, this ceremony was given special significance. Residents of fifty countries around the world watched as the Romanov family retired. It took more than 80 years to debunk the myths about the family of the last emperor Russian Empire. With the completion of the funeral procession, an entire era passed into the past.
Almost a hundred years have passed since that terrible night when the Russian Empire ceased to exist forever. Until now, no historian can state unequivocally what happened that night and whether any of the family members survived. Most likely, the secret of this family will remain unsolved and we can only guess what really happened.
Agree: it would be stupid to shoot the Tsar without first shaking out his honestly earned money from his cashboxes. So he was not shot. However, it was not possible to get the money right away, because the times were too turbulent...
Regularly, by the middle of summer of each year, loud lamentation for the murdered Tsar Nicholas II, whom Christians also “canonized” in 2000, resumes. Here is Comrade. Starikov, exactly on July 17, once again threw “wood” into the firebox of emotional lamentations about nothing. I was not interested in this issue before, and would not have paid attention to yet another dud, BUT... At the last meeting in his life with readers, Academician Nikolai Levashov just mentioned that in the 30s Stalin met with Nicholas II and asked him money to prepare for a future war. This is how Nikolai Goryushin writes about it in his report “There are prophets in our fatherland!” about this meeting with readers:
“...In this regard, the information related to tragic fate the last Emperor of the Russian Empire Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov and his family... In August 1917, he and his family were deported to the last capital of the Slavic-Aryan Empire, the city of Tobolsk. The choice of this city was not accidental, since the highest degrees of Freemasonry are aware of the great past of the Russian people. The exile to Tobolsk was a kind of mockery of the Romanov dynasty, which in 1775 defeated the troops of the Slavic-Aryan Empire ( Great Tartary), and later this event was called the suppression of the peasant revolt of Emelyan Pugachev... In July 1918, Jacob Schiff gives the command to one of his trusted persons in the Bolshevik leadership, Yakov Sverdlov, to ritually murder the royal family. Sverdlov, after consulting with Lenin, orders the commandant of Ipatiev’s house, security officer Yakov Yurovsky, to carry out the plan. According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot.
At the meeting, Nikolai Levashov said that in fact Nicholas II and his family were not shot! This statement immediately raises many questions. I decided to look into them. Many works have been written on this topic, and the picture of the execution and the testimony of witnesses look plausible at first glance. The facts obtained by investigator A.F. do not fit into the logical chain. Kirstoy, who joined the investigation in August 1918. During the investigation, he interviewed Dr. P.I. Utkin, who reported that at the end of October 1918 he was invited to the building occupied by the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution to provide medical care. The victim turned out to be a young girl, presumably 22 years old, with a cut lip and a tumor under her eye. To the question “who is she?” the girl replied that she was “the Tsar’s daughter Anastasia.” During the investigation, investigator Kirsta did not find the corpses of the royal family in Ganina Pit. Soon, Kirsta found numerous witnesses who told him during interrogations that in September 1918, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. And the witness Samoilov stated from the words of his neighbor, the guard of Ipatiev’s house Varakushev, that there was no execution, the royal family was loaded into a carriage and taken away.
After receiving this data, A.F. Kirst is removed from the case and ordered to hand over all materials to investigator A.S. Sokolov. Nikolai Levashov reported that the motive for saving the life of the Tsar and his family was the desire of the Bolsheviks, contrary to the orders of their masters, to take possession of the hidden wealth of the Romanov dynasty, the location of which Nikolai Alexandrovich certainly knew. Soon the organizers of the execution in 1919, Sverdlov, and Lenin in 1924 die. Nikolai Viktorovich clarified that Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR..."
If this was the first lie of Comrade. Starikov, one might well think that the person still knows little and was simply mistaken. But Starikov is the author of several very good books and is very savvy in matters of recent Russian history. From this follows the obvious conclusion that he is deliberately disingenuous. I won’t write here about the reasons for this lie, although they lie right on the surface... I’d better give some more evidence that the royal family was not executed in July 1918, and the rumor about the execution was most likely started for “reporting” in front of customers - Schiff and other comrades who financed the coup d'etat in Russia in 1917...
Did Nicholas II meet with Stalin?
There are suggestions that Nicholas II was not shot, but that the entire female half of the royal family was taken to Germany. But the documents are still classified...
For me, this story began in November 1983. I then worked as a photojournalist for a French agency and was sent to a summit of heads of state and government in Venice. There I accidentally met an Italian colleague, who, having learned that I was Russian, showed me a newspaper (I think it was La Repubblica) dated the day of our meeting. In the article to which the Italian drew my attention, it was said that a certain nun, Sister Pascalina, died in Rome at a very old age. I later learned that this woman held an important position in the Vatican hierarchy under Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), but that is not the point.
The secret of the Vatican's "Iron Lady"
This sister Pascalina, who earned the honorable nickname of the “Iron Lady” of the Vatican, before her death called a notary with two witnesses and in their presence dictated information that she did not want to take with her to the grave: one of the daughters of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II - Olga - was not shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, 1918, she lived a long life and was buried in a cemetery in the village of Marcotte in northern Italy.
After the summit, I and my Italian friend, who was both my driver and translator, went to this village. We found the cemetery and this grave. On the slab was written in German: “Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov” - and the dates of her life: “1895-1976”. We talked with the cemetery watchman and his wife: they, like all the village residents, remembered Olga Nikolaevna very well, knew who she was, and were sure that the Russian Grand Duchess was under the protection of the Vatican.
This strange find interested me extremely, and I decided to look into all the circumstances of the execution myself. And in general, was he there?
I have every reason to believe that there was no execution. On the night of July 16-17, all the Bolsheviks and their sympathizers left for railway to Perm. The next morning, leaflets were posted around Yekaterinburg with the message that the royal family had been taken away from the city - and so it was. Soon the city was occupied by whites. Naturally, an investigative commission was formed “in the case of the disappearance of Emperor Nicholas II, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses,” which did not find any convincing traces of the execution.
Investigator Sergeev said in an interview with an American newspaper in 1919: “I don’t think that everyone was executed here - both the tsar and his family. “In my opinion, the empress, prince and grand duchesses were not executed in Ipatiev’s house.” This conclusion did not suit Admiral Kolchak, who by that time had already proclaimed himself the “supreme ruler of Russia.” And really, why does the “supreme” need some kind of emperor? Kolchak ordered the collection of a second investigative team, which got to the bottom of the fact that in September 1918 the Empress and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. Only the third investigator, Nikolai Sokolov (led the case from February to May 1919), turned out to be more understanding and issued the well-known conclusion that the entire family was shot, the corpses were dismembered and burned at the stake. “The parts that were not susceptible to fire,” wrote Sokolov, “were destroyed with the help of sulfuric acid.”
What, then, was buried in 1998 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? Let me remind you that shortly after the start of perestroika, some skeletons were found in Porosyonkovo Log near Yekaterinburg. In 1998, they were solemnly reburied in the Romanov family tomb, after numerous genetic examinations were carried out before that. Moreover, the guarantor of the authenticity of the royal remains was the secular power of Russia in the person of President Boris Yeltsin. But Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the bones as the remains of the royal family.
But let's go back to the times Civil War. According to my information, the royal family was divided in Perm. The path of the female part lay in Germany, while the men - Nikolai Romanov himself and Tsarevich Alexei - were left in Russia. Father and son were kept for a long time near Serpukhov at the former dacha of the merchant Konshin. Later, in NKVD reports, this place was known as “Object No. 17.” Most likely, the prince died in 1920 from hemophilia. I can’t say anything about the fate of the last Russian emperor. Except for one thing: in the 30s, “Object No. 17” was visited by Stalin twice. Does this mean that Nicholas II was still alive in those years?
The men were left hostage
To understand why such incredible events from the point of view of a 21st century person became possible and to find out who needed them, you will have to go back to 1918. Remember from school course stories about the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk? Yes, on March 3, in Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty was concluded between Soviet Russia on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey on the other. Russia lost Poland, Finland, the Baltic states and part of Belarus. But this was not why Lenin called the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty “humiliating” and “obscene.” By the way, the full text of the agreement has not yet been published either in the East or in the West. I believe that because of the secret conditions present in it. Probably the Kaiser, who was a relative of Empress Maria Feodorovna, demanded that all the women of the royal family be transferred to Germany. The girls had no rights to the Russian throne and, therefore, could not threaten the Bolsheviks in any way. The men remained hostages - as guarantors that the German army would not venture further east than stated in the peace treaty.
What happened next? What was the fate of the women brought to the West? Was their silence a requirement for their integrity? Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers.
Interview with Vladimir Sychev on the Romanov case
In June 1987, I was in Venice as part of the French press accompanying François Mitterrand to the G7 summit. During breaks between pools, an Italian journalist approached me and asked me something in French. Realizing from my accent that I was not French, he looked at my French accreditation and asked where I was from. “Russian,” I answered. - Is that so? – my interlocutor was surprised. Under his arm he held an Italian newspaper, from which he translated a huge, half-page article.
Dies in private clinic in Switzerland, sister Pascalina. She was known to the entire Catholic world, because... passed with the future Pope Pius XXII from 1917, when he was still Cardinal Pacelli in Munich (Bavaria), until his death in the Vatican in 1958. She had such a strong influence on him that he entrusted her with the entire administration of the Vatican, and when the cardinals asked for an audience with the Pope, she decided who was worthy of such an audience and who was not. This is a short retelling of a long article, the meaning of which was that we had to believe the phrase uttered at the end and not by a mere mortal. Sister Pascalina asked to invite a lawyer and witnesses because she did not want to take the secret of her life to the grave. When they appeared, she only said that the woman buried in the village of Morcote, near Lake Maggiore, was really the daughter of the Russian Tsar - Olga!
I convinced my Italian colleague that this was a gift from Fate, and that it was useless to resist her. Having learned that he was from Milan, I told him that I would not fly back to Paris on the presidential press plane, but he and I would go to this village for half a day. We went there after the summit. It turned out that this was no longer Italy, but Switzerland, but we quickly found a village, a cemetery and a cemetery watchman who led us to the grave. On the gravestone - photograph elderly woman and an inscription in German: Olga Nikolaevna (no surname), eldest daughter of Nikolai Romanov, Tsar of Russia, and dates of life – 1885-1976!!!
The Italian journalist was an excellent translator for me, but he clearly didn’t want to stay there for the whole day. All I had to do was ask questions.
– When did she live here? – In 1948.
– She said that she was the daughter of the Russian Tsar? - Of course, the whole village knew about it.
– Did this get into the press? - Yes.
– How did the other Romanovs react to this? Did they sue? - They served it.
- And she lost? - Yes, I lost.
– In this case, she had to pay the legal costs of the other party. - She paid.
- She worked? - No.
-Where does she get the money from? – Yes, the whole village knew that the Vatican was supporting her!!
The ring has closed. I went to Paris and began to look for what was known on this issue... And quickly came across a book by two English journalists.
Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published the book “Dossier on the Tsar” (“The Romanov Case, or the Execution that Never Happened”) in 1979. They started with the fact that if the classification of secrecy from state archives is removed after 60 years, then in 1978 60 years will expire from the date of signing Treaty of Versailles, and you can “dig up” something there by looking into the declassified archives. That is, at first there was an idea to just look... And they very quickly came across telegrams from the English ambassador to their Foreign Ministry that the royal family had been taken from Yekaterinburg to Perm. There is no need to explain to BBC professionals that this is a sensation. They rushed to Berlin.
It quickly became clear that the Whites, having entered Yekaterinburg on July 25, immediately appointed an investigator to investigate the execution of the royal family. Nikolai Sokolov, whose book everyone still refers to, is the third investigator who received the case only at the end of February 1919! Then a simple question arises: who were the first two and what did they report to their superiors? So, the first investigator named Nametkin, appointed by Kolchak, having worked for three months and declaring that he is a professional, the matter is simple, and he does not need additional time (and the Whites were advancing and did not doubt their victory at that time - i.e. All the time is yours, don’t rush, work!), puts a report on the table stating that there was no execution, but a staged execution. Kolchak shelved this report and appointed a second investigator named Sergeev. He also works for three months and at the end of February hands Kolchak the same report with the same words (“I am a professional, the matter is simple, no additional time is needed, there was no execution, there was a mock execution.”)
Here it is necessary to explain and remind that it was the Whites who overthrew the Tsar, not the Reds, and they sent him into exile in Siberia! Lenin was in Zurich these February days. No matter what ordinary soldiers say, the white elite are not monarchists, but republicans. And Kolchak did not need a living Tsar. I advise those who have doubts to read Trotsky’s diaries, where he writes that “if the Whites had nominated any tsar - even a peasant one - we would not have lasted even two weeks”! These are the words of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army and the ideologist of the Red Terror!!! Please believe me.
Therefore, Kolchak already appoints “his” investigator Nikolai Sokolov and gives him a task. And Nikolai Sokolov also works for only three months - but for a different reason. The Reds entered Yekaterinburg in May, and he retreated along with the Whites. He took the archives, but what did he write?
1. He did not find any corpses, and for the police of any country in any system “no bodies - no murder” is a disappearance! After all, when arresting serial killers, the police demand to show where the corpses are hidden!!! You can say anything, even about yourself, but the investigator needs physical evidence!
And Nikolai Sokolov “hangs the first bullshit on his ears”: “they threw him into a mine, filled him with acid.” Nowadays they prefer to forget this phrase, but we heard it until 1998! And for some reason no one ever doubted it. Is it possible to fill a mine with acid? But there won't be enough acid! In the local history museum of Yekaterinburg, where director Avdonin (the same one, one of the three who “accidentally” found the bones on the Starokotlyakovskaya road, cleared before them by three investigators in 1918-19), there is a certificate about those soldiers on the truck that they had 78 liters of gasoline (not acid). In the month of July in the Siberian taiga, with 78 liters of gasoline, you can burn the entire Moscow zoo! No, they went back and forth, first they threw it into the mine, poured it with acid, and then took it out and hid it under the sleepers...
By the way, on the night of the “execution” from July 16 to 17, 1918, a huge train with the entire local Red Army, the local Central Committee and the local Cheka left Yekaterinburg for Perm. The Whites entered on the eighth day, and Yurovsky, Beloborodov and his comrades shifted responsibility to two soldiers? Inconsistency, - tea, we were not dealing with a peasant revolt. And if they shot at their own discretion, they could have done it a month earlier.
2. The second “noodle” by Nikolai Sokolov - he describes the basement of the Ipatievsky house, publishes photographs where it is clear that there are bullets in the walls and in the ceiling (when they stage an execution, this is apparently what they do). Conclusion - the women's corsets were filled with diamonds, and the bullets ricocheted! So, this is it: the king from the throne and into exile in Siberia. Money in England and Switzerland, and they sew diamonds into corsets to sell to peasants at the market? Well well!
3. The same book by Nikolai Sokolov describes the same basement in the same Ipatiev house, where in the fireplace there are clothes from every member of the imperial family and hair from every head. Did they have their hair cut and changed (undressed??) before being shot? Not at all - they were taken out on the same train on that very “night of the execution”, but they cut their hair and changed their clothes so that no one would recognize them there.
Tom Magold and Anthony Summers intuitively understood that the answer to this intriguing detective story must be sought in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. And they began to look for the original text. And what?? With all the removal of secrets after 60 years, such an official document is nowhere to be found! It is not in the declassified archives of London or Berlin. They searched everywhere - and everywhere they found only quotes, but nowhere could they find the full text! And they came to the conclusion that the Kaiser demanded from Lenin that the women be extradited. The Tsar's wife was a relative of the Kaiser, his daughters were German citizens and had no right to the throne, and besides, the Kaiser at that moment could crush Lenin like a bug! And here Lenin’s words that “the peace is humiliating and obscene, but it must be signed,” and the July attempt at a coup by the Socialist Revolutionaries with Dzerzhinsky joining them at the Bolshoi Theater take on a completely different form.
Officially, we were taught that Trotsky signed the Treaty only on the second attempt and only after the start of the German army’s offensive, when it became clear to everyone that the Republic of Soviets could not resist. If there is simply no army, what is “humiliating and obscene” here? Nothing. But if it is necessary to hand over all the women of the royal family, and even to the Germans, and even during the First World War, then ideologically everything is in its place, and the words are read correctly. Which Lenin did, and the entire ladies’ section was handed over to the Germans in Kyiv. And immediately the murder of the German ambassador Mirbach in Moscow and the German consul in Kyiv begins to make sense.
“Dossier on the Tsar” is a fascinating investigation into one cunningly intricate intrigue of world history. The book was published in 1979, so the words of sister Paskalina in 1983 about Olga’s grave could not have been included in it. And if there were no new facts, there would be no point in simply retelling someone else’s book here...
On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as life -medic Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexey 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, until 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 an 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, Nicholas and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe 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. Having not found evidence and documents that clearly convicted them of this, the Provisional Government was inclined to deport them abroad (to Great Britain).
In August 1917, the arrested were transported 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; Leon Trotsky was supposed to be the main accuser of Nicholas II. However, information appeared about the existence of “White Guard conspiracies” to kidnap the Tsar, the concentration of “conspiratorial officers” in Tyumen and Tobolsk for this purpose, 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 transported 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 shoot the former tsar.
The commandant of the Special Purpose House, Yakov Yurovsky, was entrusted with organizing the execution of all members of the royal family, Doctor Botkin and the servants who were in the house.
© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg
The execution scene is known from investigative reports, from the words of 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, conveyed by the main participant at different times and under completely different circumstances, agree on how the royal family and its servants were shot.
Based on documentary sources, it is possible to establish the time when the murder of Nicholas II, members of his family and their servants began. The car that delivered the last order to exterminate the family arrived at half past two on the night of July 16-17, 1918. After which the commandant ordered physician Botkin to wake up the royal family. It took the family about 40 minutes to get ready, then she and the servants were transferred to the semi-basement of this house, with a window overlooking Voznesensky Lane. Nicholas II carried Tsarevich Alexei in his arms because he could not walk due to illness. At Alexandra Feodorovna’s request, two chairs were brought into the room. She sat on one, and Tsarevich Alexei sat on the other. The rest were located along the wall. Yurovsky led the firing squad into the room and read the verdict.
This is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I invited everyone to 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 Councils of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies The Urals decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: “Shoot.” I shot first and killed Nikolai on the spot. The shooting 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 was not able to stop this shooting, which had become careless. But when, finally, I managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Doctor Botkin was lying, leaning on the elbow of his right hand, as if in a resting position, with a revolver shot ended him. Alexey, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Comrade Ermakov wanted to finish the matter with a bayonet. But, however, this did not succeed. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond armor like bras). I was forced to shoot each one in turn."
After death was confirmed, 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 Ipatiev’s house.
The remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia Romanov, as well as people from their entourage, shot in the House of Special Purpose (Ipatiev House), were discovered in July 1991 near Yekaterinburg.
On July 17, 1998, the burial of the remains of members of the royal family took place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg.
In October 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. Servants and associates of the royal family who were executed by the Bolsheviks or 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 into the circumstances of the death and burial of the last Russian emperor, members of his family and people from his entourage, shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution responsibility and death of persons who committed premeditated murder" (subparagraphs 3 and 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR).
The tragic history of the royal family: from execution to reposeIn 1918, on the night of July 17 in Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and heir Tsarevich Alexei were shot.On January 15, 2009, the investigator issued a resolution to terminate 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 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, to recognize this decision as unfounded and ordered the violations to be eliminated. On November 25, 2010, the investigation decision to terminate this case was canceled by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee.
On January 14, 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that the resolution was brought in accordance with the court decision and the criminal case regarding the death of representatives of the Russian Imperial House and people from their entourage in 1918-1919 was discontinued. The 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, a resolution was issued to terminate the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family. The 800-page resolution outlines 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 royal martyrs, the Russian Imperial House supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue. The director of the chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic testing is not enough.
The Church canonized Nicholas II and his family and on July 17 celebrates the day of remembrance of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
“In July 1991, near Yekaterinburg, on the old Koptyakovskaya road, the bone remains of nine people were discovered with signs of violent death...” This is how Natalya Rozanova’s book “Royal Passion-Bearers” begins. Posthumous fate.” - a huge long-term work that reads like a detective story. The author was able to reproduce the life of the royal family in exile, the murder, the destruction of bodies, investigations, and the sensational discovery of remains with detailed accuracy thanks to the archival memories of contemporaries and participants in the events.
The smallest details given in the book paint a stunning picture. Many facts, letters, testimonies, photographs are published for the first time. Excerpts from a grandiose study (in regular font - the author’s text by N. Rozanova, in italics - testimonies of contemporaries, preserving spelling and punctuation) - today in “MK”.
Emperor
Recalling the period of the family’s arrest in Tsarskoe Selo, Kerensky spoke about the Tsar: ... in prison, Nikolai was mostly in a complacent mood, at least calm. ...What was striking about him was his complete indifference to everything external, which transformed into some kind of painful automatism... (...) And even in Yekaterinburg, where a prison regime was practically introduced for the Royal Family, Nikolai Alexandrovich, being in captivity for the second year, did not lose his good spirits. Here is Commandant Avdeev’s review of him: You could never tell from his appearance that he was under arrest, he behaved so casually and cheerfully.
The main executor of the execution, Yurovsky, had the following opinion about Nicholas II: Anyone who saw him, without knowing who he was, no one would say that this man was the king of such a huge country for many years. And speaking of all the Romanovs imprisoned in Ipatiev’s house, Yurovsky was forced to admit: If it were not for the hated royal family, which drained so much blood from the people, they could be considered simple and unarrogant people. If you look at this family in layman's terms, you could say that it is completely harmless.
Once, - Commandant Avdeev recalls his conversation with the Sovereign, - he asked a question who the Bolsheviks were. I pointed out to him that there were 5 Bolshevik deputies of the second State Duma were exiled by him to Siberia, so he should know what kind of people the Bolsheviks are, to which he replied that his ministers often did this without his knowledge. Then I asked him how it was that he did not know what the ministers were doing when, on January 9, 1905, they shot the workers in front of his palace. He addressed me by my first name and patronymic and said: “You won’t believe it, maybe, but I learned this story only after the suppression of the uprising of St. Petersburg workers.”
Alexey Kabanov was one of those security officers who, together with Yurovsky, shot the Royal Family, and in the 1960s, being at an advanced age, he demanded a personal pension from his “native party” for this “feat.” Recalling the time he served in Ipatiev’s house, Kabanov said that the Tsar was taciturn during walks, constantly walking only with his daughter Olga; and they walked at an accelerated pace. During one of his walks, Nicholas II turned to the guard at the post to remove peat from the path along which the Tsar was walking. To this the guard replied to the former emperor:
Look, what a gentleman! Clean it yourself!
After that, Nikolai cleared this path himself, by kicking peat from the path.
Empress
The Empress spoke to Doctor Botkin (the famous doctor voluntarily remained with the Royal Family in exile, and died with them. - VC.): I’d rather be a scrubber, but I’ll be in Russia. (...) Faith is what distinguished Alexandra Fedorovna’s views from the views of many of her contemporaries; all the letters of the Prisoner Empress breathe with faith, saying that the suffering sent down to her not only did not cool or harden her soul, but also exalted her: God, how the homeland is suffering! - she wrote. - Poor homeland, they were tormented inside, and the Germans crippled outside... There will be something special to save. After all, being under the yoke of the Germans is worse than the Tatar yoke. No, the Lord will not allow such injustice and will put everything in moderation. When they are completely trampled underfoot, then He will raise the Motherland. And we will constantly pray for our Motherland. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner, and save Russia... When will all this end? Whenever God pleases. Be patient, dear country, and you will receive a crown of glory. (...) Spring will come and will bring joy and dry the tears and blood shed in streams over the poor homeland. God, how I love my homeland with all its shortcomings! (...)
From the diary entries of the Empress it is known that she rarely went out for walks and almost always stayed in the house due to poor health. However, familiarity with the documents Soviet period allows us to make an assumption: one of the reasons for Alexandra Feodorovna’s reluctance to leave her rooms again was the insults inflicted on her by ordinary guards. In Kabanov’s memoirs about this you can read the following: The former Tsarina Alexandra was of average height, red-haired, her face slightly covered with freckles, ugly, drawn-out, did not go for a walk, because in the first days of her stay in Ipatiev’s house, the guards asked questions: how was she? cohabited with Rasputin.
Family
After the execution, Kabanov took part in sorting the royal things. Looking through the discovered personal notes of the Grand Duchesses, he noticed: All the Tsar’s daughters had diaries. Despite the turbulent events that took place and, especially concerning their fate, their most ordinary moments were recorded in the diaries, how and with whom they stood in the church, with whom they had breakfast, walked, and nothing more. But Olga was already 22 years old! A.A. Strekotin, a Red Guard from the guards of Ipatiev’s house, also left his memories of the members of the Royal Family. Here is one fragment that tells about the ex-Emperor’s memorable walks with his son: A severe, incurable illness completely paralyzed both legs of the prince, apparently even before the revolution, which is why the king himself always carried him out for walks in his arms. He will carefully lift him up, press him to his broad chest, and he will tightly clasp his father’s short, thick neck with his hands, lowering his thin, weak legs like whips. So the king would take him out of the house, put him in a special stroller, and then roll him along the alleys. He will stop, pick up pebbles, pick flowers or twigs from the trees for him - give them to him, and he, like a child, throws them into the bushes.
In addition to boorish antics from the guards, there were other types of bullying. From the stories of Chemodurov (valet of the Royal Family. - VC.) it became known that when the August Persons passed by the sentries, they always deliberately clicked the bolts of their rifles, unnerving Them. “The Emperor seemed petrified and did not betray his condition,” said Chemodurov, “The Empress suffered and kept praying.” The princesses were nervous. When the princesses went to the restroom, a Red Army guard met them there and started “joking” conversations with them, asking where they were going, why, etc. Then, when They went to the restroom, the sentry, remaining outside, leaned his back against the door of the restroom and remained so until it was in use.
Instructions for washing clothes
The memoirs of the Romanov guards and executioners contain not only general impressions of the events, but also convey some valuable details from the life of the family in captivity. (...) Avdeev’s memoirs also preserved one unknown episode from the everyday life of the royal prisoners: For the first 2-3 weeks there were still difficulties with the prisoners in terms of washing clothes. They were accustomed to changing their linen every day, and they had to carefully examine all this mass of linen before handing it over to the laundresses; when they returned, it was the same story. There was neither time nor people for this, and it was necessary to keep an eye on every little detail very intensely. We agreed on this issue with Comrade. Beloborodov and offered to do this business, i.e. washing clothes, to the former daughters themselves. Tsar together with Demidova (servant of the Empress. - VC.), and in the kitchen of the house it was convenient to fence off a laundry room. At first, Alexandra Feodorovna, as always, protested and demanded that the laundress be allowed through, but because... the appropriate person was not found, she was categorically refused. After this the former The grand duchesses turned to me to get printed instructions for washing clothes. Of course, we had nowhere to get books on how to wash clothes, and we were in difficulty, but one old blacksmith from the Zlokazov factory, comrade, helped us out. Andreev - he volunteered to instruct them. And indeed, after setting up the laundry, Comrade Andreev turned out to be a good teacher, and the laundry got better, except that they began to change linen less often.
“I danced my…”
Having learned about the execution of the Tsar, Russia responded to his death with cold indifference. The Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, amazed at the silent, insensitive reception of the news of the death of the former monarch by those around her, wrote in her memoirs: We are standing, waiting for the tram. Rain. And the daring boyish cockcrow:
Execution of Nikolai Romanov! Execution of Nikolai Romanov! Nikolai Romanov was shot by the worker Beloborodov!
I look at the people, also waiting for the tram, and also (the same thing!) Hearing. Workers, ragged intelligentsia, soldiers, women with children. Nothing. At least someone! At least that's it! They buy a newspaper, glance at it briefly, then look away again - where? Yes, into the void.
About the reaction of the people to the message about the execution, R. Pipes in the book “Russian Revolution” noted the following: According to eyewitnesses, the residents, at least the urban part of them, did not experience any particular grief when informed of Nikolai’s death. In some Moscow churches, a service was held for the repose of the soul of the deceased, but as for everything else, the reaction was muted. Lockhart notes “that the message was received by the residents of Moscow with amazing indifference.” Bothmer had the same impression: “The reaction of the people to the death of the king is indifference. The people accepted the murder of the king with apathetic indifference. Even decent and prudent people have become so accustomed to various horrors and are so immersed in their own affairs and worries that they are incapable of experiencing anything special.”
Former Prime Minister Kokovtsev even noticed signs of some schadenfreude as he rode a tram on July 20 in Petrograd: “Not even a shadow of sympathy or pity was noticeable anywhere. The message was read aloud, mixed with antics, mocking, caustic, heartless remarks... They expressed it disgustingly, like “It’s high time...” or “Yes, brother Romanov, he did his dance.”
Execution
Security guard Alexander Strekotin, one of the accomplices in the murder, who was proud of him and left memories of the crime in 1928, accidentally spoke about his inner, surprising for him, confusion that gripped him a few minutes before committing the crime in Ipatiev’s house: Comrade Comrade is coming downstairs to me again . Medvedev takes the gun back from me and leaves. When leaving me, I asked him “what does this all mean?” he told me “that there will be an execution soon.” After this, I became agitated and for some reason I was overcome by fear and pity for them, that is, for the royal family. Soon Medvedev, Okulov and someone else, I don’t remember, come down... Goosebumps run through my body, I now know that there will be an execution... However, despite the internal hesitation, Strekotin watched the executioner to the end. The instant movement of conscience and human compassion gave way to bitterness and insolence. “Finally I hear noisy steps,” he continued in his memoirs, “and I see the whole Romanov family coming downstairs... When they were brought into the room, Okulov came back out at the same minute, passing by me he said, “I still need a chair,” apparently to die. I want to sit on a chair. Well, apparently you'll have to bring it. Yurovsky, with a quick movement of his hands, shows the arrested how to stand, and in a quiet and calm voice says “please stand like this, in a row,” but all this happened unusually quickly. The arrested stood in two rows... The heir was sitting on a chair. ... Comrade Yurovsky began to read... ...He read something like, “Your relatives are preventing you from living and are going to war, and therefore your life is over,” but he had not finished reading yet, when the king asked again, “How, I don’t I understand, read it again,” then Comrade Yurovsky began to read it a second time, and at his last words, “Your life is over,” several voices came together and even the queen and eldest daughter Olga tried to cross themselves, but did not have time. With the last words “Your life is over” Comrade. Yurovsky instantly pulled a revolver out of his pocket and shot at the Tsar. The last one instantly fell off his feet from one shot. Simultaneously with the shots of Comrade. Yurovsky and everyone present started shooting randomly. Those arrested were all already lying on the floor bleeding, and the heir was still sitting on the chair. For some reason, he did not fall from the chair for a long time and remained alive. Close up (point-blank - VC.) began to shoot him in the head and chest, and finally he fell out of his chair. The dog that one of the daughters brought with her was shot along with them.
Several more shots were fired at the lying corpses (according to the comrades from the team, the shooting was heard by all the guards at their posts). Then, on the orders of Comrade. Yurovsky, the shooting was stopped. The room was thick with smoke and smell. All internal doors were opened to allow smoke to spread throughout the room. They brought a stretcher and began to remove the corpses. The king was put on the stretcher first. I helped carry him out. ...They began to lay down one of the king’s daughters, but she turned out to be alive, screamed and covered her face with her hand. In addition, one more of the daughters and that person, a lady who was with the royal family, turned out to be alive. It was no longer possible to shoot at them, since all the doors inside the building were open, then Comrade. Ermakov, seeing that I was holding a rifle with a bayonet in my hands, suggested that I finish off those who were still alive. I refused, then he took the rifle from my hands and began to finish them off. This was the most terrible moment of their death. They did not die for a long time, they screamed, moaned, and twitched. That person, the lady, died especially hard. Ermakov stabbed her all over her chest. He struck so hard with the bayonet that each time the bayonet stuck deep into the floor. One of the executed men apparently stood before the execution in the second row and near the corner of the room, and when they were shot, he could not fall, but simply sat down in the corner and remained dead in this position.
