Investigation into the death of the royal family and people from their circle. Secrets of the investigation into the royal case Unclaimed medical records of the Royal Family
Introduction
The issues of the death of the imperial family, the discovery of remains near Yekaterinburg, recognition or non-recognition of the remains as “royal” have been exciting our society for almost 25 years. For many people, the opinion of the Russian Orthodox Church on these issues becomes decisive. But in order for the Church to speak about this objectively, a thorough study of historical documents, investigative materials, and the results of scientific examinations is necessary.
White Guard investigation 1918 - 1924
The materials of the White Guard investigation are a valuable source for studying the circumstances of the death and burial of the Royal Family, since they contain interrogations of witnesses and suspects, protocols for examining the scenes of events carried out in the near future after the crime was committed.
On the night of July 16-17, the Royal Family, their servants and associates were shot. On the 17th, 18th and 19th morning the Reds were busy hiding the bodies of those shot. On July 25, the Whites took Yekaterinburg. On July 30, an investigation was launched. It was headed by Nametkin, but less than two weeks later he handed over the investigation to Ivan Aleksandrovich Sergeev.
Sergeev led the investigation for six months from August 1918 to February 1919. It was he who carried out the main investigative actions and proved the fact of the murder of the entire Royal Family and its entourage. Sergeev did not have a ready-made concept to fit the conclusions to, and this distinguished him favorably from the third investigator, Sokolov. The fact that Sergeev never found the burial place of the Royal family and servants is easily explained by the circumstances in which he had to conduct the investigation. He did not have reliable assistants or money; in wartime conditions, valuable witnesses were destroyed, material evidence (including Ipatiev’s house) was not sealed and kept intact.
The third investigator, Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, conducted the investigation from February 1919 until his death in exile in 1924. He became convinced that after the execution, the bodies of the dead were dismembered, burned at the stake and finally destroyed with sulfuric acid. Sokolov’s version of the “ritual murder” was formed under the influence of the head of the investigation, Lieutenant General Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs, a convinced supporter of the “world conspiracy” theory. Sokolov’s lack of experience in conducting criminal cases involving sophisticated methods of hiding corpses also played a role. During the investigation, he did not familiarize himself with the forensic literature on cremation and did not conduct an investigative experiment testing the possibility of complete burning of the body over an open fire. Sokolov knew about the relatively small size of the bonfires found at Ganina Yama (probably, the clothes and shoes of those executed were burned there), but he, being captive of his version, decided that the bodies of those executed were destroyed in these bonfires.
The first version of the burning of bodies was voiced by the peasants of the village of Koptyaki, when they found fireplaces near Ganina Yama - “The Emperor was burned here.” The words of the peasants were based on the disinformation that the Bolsheviks spread. Sokolov ignored the testimony of other witnesses who spoke about burying the bodies, and not about their burning.
The investigation had indirect data sufficient to make an assumption about the burial place. Several witnesses spoke of a long stop of cars and carts on the night of July 18-19, 1918 near crossing No. 184. The investigator knew that the bridge made of sleepers appeared that night and that it was built by “comrades” from the fence of the house of the crossing guard Lobukhin. Sokolov found this bridge, walked along it, took photographs, but until the end of the investigation this place never attracted his attention and no excavations were planned there.
It seems that the White Guard investigation satisfactorily solved only part of the problems - it established the fact of the death of the entire Royal Family and their entourage, carried out research on the site of the execution and the original burial place of the bodies in the Ganina Yama area, collected a number of material evidence, identified and interviewed witnesses to the crime.
Both investigators were unable to solve the problem of finding the bodies of those shot. But if the first, Sergeev, honestly admitted this and intended to continue the search, then the second, Sokolov, accepted the version of “ritual murder” and the complete burning of the remains and stopped the search.
Publications and memories of participants in the execution
Accompanied by this ritual version, the materials of the White Guard investigation formed the basis of emigrant literature on the issue under study.
In Soviet Russia in the 20s, several articles were published written by participants in the events, but in 1928, after a meeting between the organizer of the execution, Goloshchekin, and Stalin, a ban on publications on this topic was imposed in the USSR. Meanwhile, a number of participants in the events of July 1918 in Yekaterinburg left memories that make it possible to reconstruct the picture of the murder and concealment of the bodies. Until 1992, these memories were kept in a special storage facility and were not available to researchers.
The burial of corpses in a swampy hole on the Koptyakovskaya road under a bridge made of old sleepers was testified by the main participants in the events: Medvedev (Kudrin), Rodzinsky, and most of all - Yurovsky. It was on the basis of the landmarks of the burial place described in Yurovsky’s memoirs that an attempt was made to search for the grave by Ryabov and Avdonin.
Search for Ryabov G.T. and Avdonina A.N. 1976 - 1979
Film director Geliy Trofimovich Ryabov was interested in the history of post-revolutionary events in the Urals and, while in Sverdlovsk, he asked to organize a meeting with local historians. So he contacted Alexander Nikolaevich Avdonin, who was unofficially dealing with the topic of the execution of the Royal Family. From this meeting a group of enthusiasts was formed, which from 1976 to 1979. studied documents related to the last period of the life of the Royal Family and searched for a burial place. This group contacted the son of the organizer of the execution, Alexander Yakovlevich Yurovsky, who gave Ryabov a copy of “Yurovsky’s note.” The note indicated the main landmark of the burial of the Royal Family - a bridge made of sleepers. Having made a topographical survey of Ganina Yama and the Koptyakovskaya road and superimposed on it all the landmarks known from the documents, the group came to the conclusion about the burial place of the Romanov family.
In the period from May 31 to June 1, 1979, the group of Avdonin and Ryabov, under the guise of a geological expedition, opened the burial. At a depth of 30-40 cm, they discovered a wooden flooring, and under it human remains. They removed three skulls from the burial, which Ryabov took to Moscow “for possible research.” When this failed, the skulls were returned to burial.
In the search for the royal grave, Ryabov was patronized by the Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov. He helped to gain access to secret information in the archives, helped to obtain an accurate police map of the area, and instructed employees of the Sverdlovsk Department of Internal Affairs to assist in his work.
There is still no consensus on Shchelokov’s role in these searches. Some researchers believe that Shchelokov was the initiator of the search for the grave of the Royal Family; Ryabov and his group worked on his instructions. The official investigation believes that “Shchelokov knew about the search for the remains carried out by the Avdonin-Ryabov group, showed personal interest in these searches, but did not officially react to the discovery of the remains of the Royal Family.”
The investigation uses “personal interest” to try to explain why a high-ranking Soviet official, knowing what searches Ryabov was conducting, allowed him access to absolutely secret information. But this is either an official crime, for which the minister could lose his position, or a special operation. Until this question is answered, there is a legitimate suspicion that behind these actions there is some kind of intrigue hidden from society.
The second embarrassing fact in the actions of the Ryabov-Avdonin group is the violation of the integrity of the burial, a barbaric (from an archaeological point of view) method of opening the grave. Experts who worked on the exhumation in 1991 determined that the 1979 excavations caused serious damage to the integrity of the pit and the remains located in it. The opening of the burial occurred in a hurry, without observing the norms of archaeological work. There was no excavation plan, no breakdown into squares and levels, no recording of all finds was carried out, with a description of the location features, and the soil was not sifted. Thus, something from which a professional archaeologist would have extracted a wealth of information was lost. The remains themselves were damaged, the vertebrae connecting the skulls to the skeletons were broken. All this brought chaos and confusion to further research, which began 11 years later.
Excavations 1991
On July 10, 1991, the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region received information about the discovery of human remains in the area of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. Eduard Rossel, chairman of the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee, ordered to form a team of experts in one day and begin work.
The exhumation was carried out on July 11-13, 1991. Surprisingly, the excavations in 1991 were not much better than the clandestine opening of the grave in 1979. It took the investigative team 3 days and 2 hours to open the grave of 9 people. This is completely different from archaeological excavations, since it takes archaeologists at least several weeks to do such work well.
The only professional who took part in the exhumation, professor of archeology Lyudmila Nikolaevna Koryakova, recalls that during the work more than a dozen mysterious people constantly “came and went.” "Everything was organized in haste, without careful preparation." "Various people walked around the grave, separating bones from skeletons and disturbing their integrity." Such actions forced Koryakova to protest vigorously.
Such careless removal from the ground seriously damaged the remains. The identity of some bones and bone fragments was confused.
As a result of excavations, nine skeletons were discovered with traces of exposure to aggressive substances, as well as with damage to bone tissue caused by bladed weapons and firearms. No signs of clothing or shoes were found in the burial. Along with the bodies, bullets from pistols and revolvers, fragments of ceramic vessels, pieces of rope, and fragments of grenades were found.
During the excavations, about 500 bone fragments were recovered. When they were laid out, counted and compared, it became clear that for nine bodies this is very little. The human skeleton consists of 206 bones, so the remains of the nine victims would ideally have totaled 1,854. It was decided to repeat the excavations and sift all the soil through a fine sieve. More than 20 tons of earth were removed and sifted from the pit. During these works, about 300 more bone fragments, 13 teeth, 11 bullets, fragments of fatty tissue, ropes and ceramic shards were found.
More than half of the remains were lost. Where are they? Completely disappeared by acid, fire and time? Or were they not found? Or found it but didn’t save it? Or were they found by someone other than the investigative team? The investigation did not raise these questions and did not provide answers to them.
It immediately became clear that there were no two bodies in the grave. This picture corresponded to the recollections of the participants in the execution about the separate burial of two people. One of the primary tasks of the investigation was to find these remains. Their discovery would have become an important link in the system of evidence of the authenticity of the find and could have helped identify all 11 people, but this did not happen in the 90s.
Due to the incompleteness of the discovered remains, it was very important for the investigation to obtain samples of bones and soil taken by Sokolov to Europe, and later walled up in the Church of Job the Long-Suffering in Brussels, but representatives of the ROCOR refused to hand them over. In 1998 - 2000, under the leadership of Avdonin, excavations were carried out at the same mine where Sokolov found this material evidence. During the excavations, pieces of clothing and jewelry were discovered, three rifle casings and 62 bone objects identical to those found by Sokolov in 1919. Research showed that all bone objects belonged to animals. This suggests that the bones found are leftover food that was thrown into a fire, but a definitive answer to this question requires a study of the samples stored in Brussels.
During excavations in 1991, a power cable with a diameter of about 15 cm was discovered near the southwestern side of the pit at a depth of 80 cm. The depth of the cable almost coincided with the location of several skeletons, which lay at a depth of 90, 92 and 100 cm. The cable severely damaged the located underneath the bones, turning them over and crushing them. It turns out that the integrity of the burial was violated not only by the Ryabov-Avdonin group, but, at a minimum, also by the cable layers. This is a separate serious problem that requires research, but the investigation did not consider this problem.
Examinations 1991-98
Expert research on the case was carried out from August 24, 1991 to January 24, 1998. The conclusions of the forensic medical expert commission are as follows:
1. The bone objects submitted for examination are the remains of nine people (4 men and 5 women).
2. All skeletons were kept in the same burial conditions for a significant period (at least 50 - 60 years).
3. It has been established that five skeletons belong to individuals who make up one specific family group, namely: skeleton No. 4 - Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, No. 7 - Alexandra Fedorovna, No. 3 - Olga Nikolaevna, No. 5 - Tatyana Nikolaevna, No. 6 - Anastasia Nikolaevna.
Based on the remaining four skeletons, it was established that they are the remains of: skeleton No. 1 - Anna Stepanovna Demidova, No. 2 - Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, No. 8 - Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, No. 9 - Aloisy Egorovich Troupe.
The remains of Maria Nikolaevna Romanova and Alexey Nikolaevich Romanov were not found among the examined bone objects.
No damage to the cervical vertebrae indicating possible severed heads was found.
Experts said there were “signs of exposure to an aggressive chemical environment” on the remains. This explained the small number of surviving fragments of skeletons No. 8 (Kharitonov) and No. 9 (Trupp), which were located in the place of maximum concentration of the reagent. Experts spoke about “short-term exposure to an aggressive substance, possibly sulfuric acid” and confirmed that “no traces of exposure to high temperature were found on the presented remains.”
The conclusions of a group of geneticists led by Pavel Leonidovich Ivanov and Peter Gill sounded like this: “Probabilistic analysis and assessment ... of experimental data showed with at least 99% reliability that five specific skeletons out of nine studied are the remains of members of the Romanov family - father, mother and three daughters." These findings were supplemented by a genetic study conducted in 1998 by Evgeniy Ivanovich Rogaev, who compared blood samples from Nicholas II's nephew Kulikovsky-Romanov and bone tissue samples from skeleton No. 4. His conclusion sounds less categorical: “a comparative analysis suggests a close relationship between Kulikovsky-Romanov and the person conventionally designated among the remains as No. 4.”
These expert conclusions have been disputed by other geneticists. Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Director of the Department of Forensic and Scientific Medicine at Kitazato University (Japan), Tatsuo Nagai, after conducting a DNA analysis, received results different from the results obtained by Peter Gill and Pavel Ivanov on five points. His findings were verified by a group of experts led by Professor Bronte, president of the International Association of Forensic Experts. Analyzes carried out by Bronte's team confirmed Nagai's results, and Bronte publicly stated that the Yekaterinburg remains were not those of the Romanovs.
It should be noted that genetic science was developing very rapidly at that time. In 1993, Gill and Ivanov conducted a 6-point comparison, but a 10-point comparison showed that results based on 6-point analysis were often misleading. Already in 2000, the same research laboratory of the UK Ministry of Internal Affairs that conducted the research switched to a 10-point comparison method, and two years later they began to work using 16, and then 20 points. Therefore, the authors of the 2007-2008 examinations conducted in laboratories in the USA and Austria say about genetic research in the 90s that “the results were unreliable.” These facts explain well why DNA studies failed to become a decisive argument in the debate over the authenticity of the remains in 1998.
In addition to geneticists, the identification problem was solved by anthropologists and forensic experts. Basic anthropometric data were established: age, gender, height, as well as causes of death. A reconstruction of the skulls was carried out. Computer analysis of the skulls revealed pronounced mathematically proven similarities between skulls 3, 5, 6, 7 (Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia and Alexandra Fedorovna), which are sharply different from all the others. The method of photographic comparison of skulls and intravital photographs made it possible to personify the remains of the Romanov sisters and draw the conclusion that Maria Nikolaevna was not present in the burial. The experts’ conclusion that it was impossible to establish the presence of chopped wounds on the skull of Emperor Nicholas II, received in 1891 in Japan, became important, since the damage affected only the outer bone plate of the cranial vault, and at the time of the study this plate was not preserved.
It should be recognized that by 1998 the investigation had a large number of facts indicating the authenticity of the grave, opened in 1991. It was necessary to find the missing remains, complete a number of studies, and overcome the differences of opinion among scientists on some important issues. But pressure was put on the investigation, as a result of which the research was stopped and the search was curtailed. The government commission began to hastily prepare for the burial of the remains in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Lowell Levin, a forensic expert from the United States, noted in connection with these events: “... it is difficult to talk about scientific reliability. ... One gets the impression that everything that happens here is connected with political... considerations...”. Perhaps this proposal of the American scientist is key in explaining why the investigation was terminated in 1998.
In 1998, the Russian Orthodox Church did not recognize the Yekaterinburg remains as authentic. In a situation where the investigation is closed without finding all the remains and without answering a number of fundamental questions; when there is disagreement among researchers on the issue of identification, the Church, which is not a specialist and cannot choose any opinion of scientists, refrained from drawing conclusions about the recognition or non-recognition of the remains.
At a meeting of the Holy Synod on February 26, 1998, a report was heard from Metropolitan Yuvenaly, on the basis of which the Synod spoke out “in favor of the immediate burial of these remains in a symbolic grave-monument. When all doubts regarding the “Ekaterinburg remains” are removed and the grounds for embarrassment regarding the confrontation in society, we should return to the final decision on the location of their burial."
The Synod proposed to carry out a temporary burial and complete all research in order to, having received indisputable results, end the strife in society on this issue. Unfortunately, the voice of the Church was not heard.
When the investigation was closed, the search for the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, which had been conducted since 1992 by specialists from the Institute of History and Archeology due to the cessation of funding, was stopped, but they were continued by enthusiasts.
Excavations 2007
Yekaterinburg local historian Vitaly Shitov and member of the military-historical club "Mountain Shield" Nikolai Neuymen organized a group of searchers who, on weekends, carried out reconnaissance using probes and also dug pits.
On July 29, 2007, one of the searchers, Leonid Vokhmyakov, discovered a fire pit with a probe. Without informing the head of the archaeological work about this, he independently “pierced it across the entire surface to a great depth (which led to the destruction of some of the artifacts),” and then began to dig a hole from which he extracted several human bones, coals, iron parts, and fragments of ceramics. Only after this did he inform the group leader Grigoriev about the find, and he informed the archaeologist Kurlaev and Avdonin about the find by phone. “Having gone after them, he asked the searchers to refrain from further digging.” But when they arrived, they saw that Plotnikov’s search engine had already expanded the hole to 1 meter in diameter and to a depth of 0.5 m. A layout of the finds was not drawn up, and the soil was not sifted (later 3 teeth were found in the soil).
Scientific excavations in accordance with all the rules of archeology with an area of 100 square meters continued from July 30 to August 6. During the excavations, coals were found; nails, plates and corners from boxes; three pistol bullets with traces of exposure to high temperatures and possibly aggressive chemicals; fragments of ceramics, completely identical to the fragments found in the burial of 9 bodies during excavations in 1991; a piece of black fabric; fragments of bones and teeth. There was no anatomical correspondence in the relative positions of the bones.
Examinations 2007 - 2009
46 bone fragments and 7 teeth or their fragments were submitted for research. Most of the bone fragments (35 out of 46) had an extremely low mass (within 3 g) and were poorly differentiated anatomically. 10 bone fragments were identified that reliably belonged to a person and allowed the diagnosis of the main group characteristics of personality.
The study found that all of these 10 bone fragments and 7 tooth fragments were parts of the skeletons of two people. The skeleton of an adolescent male (probably 12 - 14 years old) includes 7 bone fragments and probably 4 teeth. The skeleton of a woman (probably 18 - 19 years old) includes 3 bone fragments and probably 3 teeth.
Some bone remains and teeth showed signs of exposure to high temperatures and sulfuric acid. Infrared spectrophotometry data indicated that the corpses were burned on a fire rather than in a firebox; that the remains were first burned and only then doused with sulfuric acid, and that conditions for prolonged exposure to acid in the area were not created.
The general conclusion of the examination is as follows: “Based on gender and age, how long ago the burial was, and the conditions aimed at destroying the corpses, the bone objects could belong to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, born in 1904 and 1899, respectively, who were shot in July 1918.”
For genetic analysis, experts selected three relatively well-preserved bone fragments and bone samples from a burial discovered in 1991, presumably belonging to Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their daughters - Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia.
The conclusions of the examination are as follows: “Based on genetic data, it is impossible to identify which of the daughters is in the burial. It has been reliably established that the woman whose bone fragments and teeth were found in the 2007 burial is the daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and the daughter of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova. Based on the research male specimens from the 2007 burial, he can be identified as the son of Emperor Nicholas II and the son of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova, that is, as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov."
New genetic studies of bone tissue samples from nine people from the 1991 burial, carried out at a new level and providing the highest degree of reliability, confirmed the conclusions of the genetic examinations of 1992 - 1998.
Regarding the second burial, discovered in 2007, experts noted that “a sharp discrepancy was revealed between the calculated and actual ash mass, which indicates that during the search work only one of several places of criminal burial of the remains of two people was discovered.” It would seem that this conclusion pushed the investigation to continue the search for other burials, but it ignored this task.
Positive results of the investigation of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation
Despite all the noted shortcomings, the investigation of the Prosecutor General's Office from 1993 to 2009 to date, it is the most complete study on the problem of the execution and burial of the remains of the Royal Family and their entourage. Among the most important positive results of the investigation, the following should be noted.
1. Identification of the persons who made the decision to execute the Royal Family
The investigation examined in detail the question of how the decision to execute the Royal Family was made. Although the massacre of the Royal Family was carried out extrajudicially, at first the central Bolshevik government hatched plans for a show trial.
The leaders of the Urals looked at it differently. While the Royal Family was in Tobolsk, the Presidium of the Ural Regional Council, without documentation, decided to destroy it. When the Council of People's Commissars made the decision to transfer the Royal Family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, the Ural authorities guaranteed the immunity of the Royal Family until the trial. The management of the move of the Royal Family was entrusted to the old Ural militant Konstantin Yakovlev (Myachin), who was given emergency powers. Despite the guarantees issued, the Urals Council troops made three attempts to destroy Nicholas II. All these attempts were prevented only thanks to the intervention of Yakovlev (Myachin).
Beloborodov frankly admits: “We believed that, perhaps, there was not even a need to deliver Nicholas II to Yekaterinburg, that if favorable conditions presented themselves during his transportation, he should be shot on the road. Zaslavsky had such an order and all the time tried to take steps to its implementation, although to no avail."
While the Royal Family was in custody in Yekaterinburg, the Ural Cheka falsified correspondence with the Royal Family of a certain “officer” who sought to organize an escape from the Ipatiev House in order to prove the existence of an anti-Bolshevik conspiracy. Having received this “evidence” of the conspiracy, representatives of the Presidium of the Urals Council decided to come before the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars with the initiative to execute the Royal Family or one Emperor Nicholas. For this purpose, the military commissar of the Urals Goloshchekin went to Moscow, where he met with Lenin and Sverdlov.
Neither Lenin nor Sverdlov gave permission for the execution. Lenin still wanted to organize a trial. “It’s an all-Russian court! With publication in newspapers. Calculate what human and material damage the autocrat inflicted on the country during the years of his reign. How many revolutionaries were hanged, how many died in hard labor, in a war that no one needed! To answer before all the people! You think, only a dark peasant believes in our "good" father-tsar? How long ago did our advanced St. Petersburg worker go to the Winter Palace with banners? Just some 13 years ago! It is this incomprehensible "Russian" gullibility that the open trial of Nikolai the Bloody should dispel into smoke ".
Having answered Goloshchekin with a refusal, Sverdlov, however, said a rather ambiguous phrase to him at parting: “So tell it, Philip, to your comrades: the All-Russian Central Executive Committee does not give official sanction for execution.” It can be understood this way: although you do not have official sanction, you can act independently, depending on the situation.
Goloshchekin returned to Yekaterinburg on July 12. On the same day, July 12, 1918, the presidium of the Ural Regional Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies made an official decision to shoot the former emperor. At the same time, an undocumented decision was made to shoot members of the Royal Family and members of their retinue.
The original of this decree has not been found (investigators believe that it disappeared along with the entire archive of the Urals Council and the Ural Cheka in July 1918), but the existence of the decree is indirectly evidenced by the fact that Yurovsky, before the execution, read out some paper with the motivation for the execution. The text of the resolution was published a week later, when the leadership of the Urals had already evacuated to Perm, it said: “In view of the fact that Czechoslovak gangs threaten the capital of the red Urals, Yekaterinburg; in view of the fact that the crowned executioner can avoid the trial of the people (a conspiracy has just been discovered White Guards, who had the goal of kidnapping the entire Romanov family), the Presidium of the regional committee, in fulfillment of the will of the people, decided: to shoot the former Tsar Nikolai Romanov, guilty before the people of countless bloody crimes."
On July 16, the day before the execution of the Royal Family, a telegram was sent to Lenin and Sverdlov, notifying them of the decision made regarding Nicholas II. Nothing was said about the upcoming execution of family members and people from the environment. The text of the telegram was drawn up in such a way that the absence of a response meant that the central authorities agreed with the decision made. The investigation did not find a response from Lenin or Sverdlov to this telegram.
On July 17, 1918, an encrypted telegram was sent to the Council of People's Commissars: "Moscow Kremlin to Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Gorbunov by reverse check. Tell Sverdlov that the whole family suffered the same fate as the head; officially the family will die during the evacuation."
In the morning of July 18, Beloborodov contacted Sverdlov by telegraph and conveyed a message about the execution and a draft text for publication. Sverdlov replied: “Today I will report your decision to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. There is no doubt that it will be approved. Notification of the execution must come from the central government; refrain from publishing it until you receive it.”
On the evening of July 18, 1918, the decision of the Presidium of the Urals Council to shoot Emperor Nicholas II was recognized as correct by the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and on the night of July 18-19 it was taken into account at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars.
2. Determination of the composition of participants in the execution of the Royal Family
The second important result of the investigation is the identification of the perpetrators of the execution of the Royal Family and their servants. The investigation came to the conclusion that the direct perpetrators of the execution were: Yurovsky Yakov Mikhailovich (Yankel Khaimovich), Nikulin Grigory Petrovich, Medvedev (Kudrin) Mikhail Alexandrovich, Ermakov Petr Zakharovich, Medvedev Pavel Spiridonovich. In addition to them, members of the internal security team of Ipatiev’s house took part in the execution. It has not been reliably established which of them participated in the execution. It could be: Kabanov Alexey Georgievich, Netrebin Viktor Nikiforovich, Vaganov Stepan Petrovich and Tselms (Tselmo) Yan Martynovich.
3. Reconstruction of the execution and concealment of the remains
The investigation, relying on the memories of the participants in the events, materials from the White Guard investigation, and modern examinations, reconstructed in great detail the course of the execution and concealment of the bodies.
The memories of the participants in the execution contrast very sharply with the myth of investigator Sokolov regarding the actions of the security officers. According to Sokolov, the killers are experienced, brilliantly calculating and leave practically no traces; they are some kind of super-villains who set monstrous goals and easily achieve them. According to the recollections of the participants in the events, it is clear that this is not so. The executioners did not have a well-thought-out plan for execution and funeral. Before making the decision to shoot, they also discussed such options as “stabbing everyone in their beds with daggers” or “throwing grenades into the rooms.” The following were not carried out: a deliberate selection of performers, preparation of the necessary means of transportation, reconnaissance on the ground, even shovels were not prepared. All this reveals a complete lack of calculation and experience, which they acquired only over time.
Even before the execution, the future executioners were in a state of nervous excitement. Kabanov testifies: “all of us participating in the execution had nerves strained to the last limit.”
On July 16, both the execution and the hiding of the bodies immediately went wrong. The car with Ermakov, which was supposed to take out the bodies, was 1.5 hours late. Only after the car arrived did Yurovsky wake up Botkin and ask everyone to get dressed and gather downstairs. About 45 more minutes of tense waiting passed, and at about 2:15 a.m. the Royal Family met with their killers in the basement of the Ipatiev house.
The execution itself unexpectedly dragged on for the executioners; shooting chaotically, they not only failed to hit some of the victims, but also hit their own. The picture of mass murder - thick gunpowder smoke, pools of blood, broken brains, the smell of blood, urine, the groans of the dying - all this had a strong effect on the firing squad, someone fell into a stupor, Ermakov became completely brutal, several people vomited.
After the first volleys, Tsarevich Alexei, princesses Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, Doctor Botkin and Demidova were still alive. They were first shot, and then finished off with blows from bayonets and rifle butts. According to the recollections of one of the participants, “it was the most terrible moment of their death. They did not die for a long time, they screamed, moaned, and twitched. That person (Demidova) died especially hard. Ermakov stabbed her all over the chest. He stabbed her with a bayonet so hard that The bayonet stuck deep into the floor every time."
It turned out that some victims were wearing corsets with diamonds sewn into them, which prolonged the torment of the unfortunates. As soon as the executioners saw the jewelry, looting began immediately. It took Yurovsky a lot of effort to stop him (then they collected about 7 kg of diamonds from his clothes).
No one knew where the mines were, where the bodies had to be taken. Too many unnecessary people were involved in the operation; Ermakov brought a team of horsemen with carriages, about 25 people. Yurovsky was angry that instead of carts they took cabs, which were inconvenient to load bodies on. This team of workers, invited by Ermakov, looked like a gang of robbers (Yurovsky calls his detachment a camp), they began to be indignant that they were not able to take part in the execution. Yurovsky sent them away, fearing for the jewelry. The place where all this happened turned out to be quite busy; along the Koptyakovskaya road, peasants went to the market and went to haymaking. Although the Red Army soldiers cordoned it off and sent the peasants back, the number of witnesses to the funeral grew uncontrollably.
With great difficulty they found the mine in the morning. By order of Yurovsky, they began to undress the corpses, collect jewelry, burn clothes and shoes, and throw the bodies into the mine. They didn’t think of blowing up the ice in the mine before dumping the bodies there, so the burial ended up almost on the surface. They tried to throw grenades into the mine from above - to no avail. Thus, no secret burial was possible.
On July 17, Yurovsky left to report the situation to the Urals Council, where a decision was made to reburial. He was offered to use deep abandoned mines at 9 versts along the Moscow Highway. In Yekaterinburg, Yurovsky took food, obtained kerosene and sulfuric acid. He returned back to Ganina Yama only on the night of July 17-18.
Yurovsky recalled: “Recovering the corpses was not an easy task. By morning, however, we had recovered the corpses.” Medvedev (Kudrin) noted that when the bodies were taken out, it turned out that “the icy water of the mine not only completely washed away the blood, but also froze the bodies so much that they looked as if they were alive - a blush even appeared on the faces of the king, girls and women.”
Rodzinsky says: “It would seem that at this stage it would be necessary to decide first where and how to bury, and only then take measures. But it turned out the opposite. They arrived and the first thing they did was pull everyone out and put them away.” “What should we do next? We got up. Nothing prepared. And we didn’t even think about it. And then, you know, it’s already dawn, there’s a road nearby. It’s day. They’re going to the market.”
The attempt to burn several bodies failed, as Medvedev (Kudrin) testifies to this: “The guys didn’t have a ready-made burial plan, no one knew where to take the corpses, where to hide them, as well. Therefore, we decided to try to burn at least part of those executed so that their number "It was less than eleven. They took the bodies of Nicholas II, Alexei, the Tsarina, and Doctor Botkin, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. The frozen corpses smoked, stank, but did not burn. Then they decided to bury the remains of the Romanovs somewhere." But this attempt also failed, when they dug a hole, a local peasant came out from behind the bushes and saw it. He may have been killed right there, but he turned out to be Ermakov’s friend.
Then Yurovsky went to the Moscow highway to look at those deep mines that were pointed out to him. On the way, the car broke down, and after waiting for an hour and a half, Yurovsky decided to walk. He liked the mines. On the way back, Yurovsky stopped two riders, took their horse from them and rode to Yekaterinburg. From there he sent trucks to Ganina Yama and drove off himself. “After passing the railway line, about two miles away, I met a moving caravan with corpses,” recalls Yurovsky. But the security officers never managed to get to the deep mines; the car got stuck all the time. “They assured me that the road here was good,” says Yurovsky, “but there was a swamp on the way. So we took sleepers with us to clear out this place. We laid it out. We passed safely. About ten steps from this place we got stuck again. We fiddled around for at least an hour . They pulled out the truck. We moved on. We got stuck again. We drove around until 4 in the morning. We didn’t do anything. It was later. ... The public was busy for the third day. Exhausted. Not sleeping. Starting to worry: Every minute they expected the occupation of Yekaterinburg by the Czechoslovaks. It was necessary to look for something else exit." “About 4 on the 19th the car got stuck completely; the only thing left to do before reaching the mines was to bury or burn it.”
This is what the security officers did: they buried 9 bodies in a hole right on the road, and tried to burn 2 bodies and buried the remains separately. Yurovsky reports that two corpses (Tsarevich Alexei and the maid of honor) were separated from the rest and tried to be burned, then the remains were buried under a fire and the fire was made again to hide the traces of the pit. Rodzinsky clarifies: “It is important for us that the number 11 does not remain, because by this sign it would be possible to recognize the burial.”
Based on the totality of data, the investigation came to the conclusion that Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were buried separately.
Yurovsky recalls: “Meanwhile, they dug a mass grave for the rest. By seven in the morning, a hole, 2 arshins deep and 3 arshins square, was ready. The corpses were put in a hole, pouring sulfuric acid on their faces and all their bodies in general. Having covered them with earth and brushwood, they put them on top sleepers and drove several times - there were no traces of the pit. The secret was completely preserved - the whites did not find this burial place." Medvedev (Kudrin) confirms: “It was here, under a bridge made of old sleepers - in that place on the country road to the village of Koptyaki where Yurovsky’s car was stuck - in a dirty swampy pit, doused with sulfuric acid, members of the royal family found worthy peace.”
Looking at all this, it becomes clear that the funeral in a swamp on the road is not a villainous trick, but an accident, a gesture of despair, deathly tired security officers and Red Army soldiers who have not slept for two nights.
The reconstruction proposed by the investigation is based on enormous factual material and completely refutes Sokolov’s version of the complete destruction of the remains. The conclusion of the forensic medical examination contains a description of an experiment proving that even for partial destruction of human bones with acid, the following is required: 1. Acid in an amount at least twice the body weight (and the security officers had only 182 kg). 2. A container for immersing the body in acid (the security officers did not have one). 3. Time, at least 4 days (the security officers had less than a day at their disposal). Therefore, it is obvious that the Bolsheviks used sulfuric acid not to destroy corpses, but to make them unrecognizable.
As for the possibility of destroying remains by fire, forensic data suggests that burning a body is possible only in a special chamber at a temperature of 860-1100°C. In an ordinary fire, which was kindled by security officers, the combustion temperature is no more than 600°C; under these conditions, the bones retain their anatomical structure and only become charred. Thus, the examination data fully confirmed the facts stated in the memoirs of the participants in the concealment of the bodies.
4. Refutation of the version of “ritual murder”
Since in Russian society, both in Russia and in emigration, both immediately after the murder of the Royal Family and today, many church people adhered and continue to adhere to this version, one can only welcome the analysis of this issue. The investigation considered the following arguments.
Couplet from Heine
On the wall of the room where the murder took place, the final lines of Heine’s ballad “Balshazzar” were written, which in Russian poetic translation read like this:
"But before the dawn rose,
The slaves killed the king."
General Dieterichs claimed that this couplet was written in pencil by a semi-intelligent hand in Jewish-German jargon.
Firstly, the Yiddish script uses only the Hebrew alphabet, and the text in the room was written in German.
Secondly, the White Guard investigation could not establish the time of the appearance of the inscription on the wall. The fact is that after the Bolsheviks left the city, Ipatiev’s house was not guarded; many people visited the house out of curiosity, taking things “as souvenirs.” As evidenced by the investigation, changes were made to the situation.
Thirdly, there is no evidence that Heine was associated with any Jewish religious movements. Although he came from a Jewish family, this family was not religious. To gain access to the practice of law, Heine was baptized, but all his life he remained indifferent to religion, and at his funeral, at his request, no religious rites were performed.
Fourthly, it is difficult to imagine that this inscription was made by murderers, for the reason that they are called “slaves”, “slaves”. If they were committing some kind of ritual murder, they should have felt like judges, higher than the monarch.
All available facts only indicate that before the investigation began, a person who was familiar with Heine’s work and spoke German was in this room. It can be assumed that it was either one of the white Czechs who was fluent in German, and for whom the Bolsheviks who committed the murder of the Tsar were “slaves,” or a captured Austro-Hungarian from the guard of the Ipatiev house, who also spoke German.
"Kabbalistic signs"
In April 1919, on the windowsill of the same room where the lines from Heine were written, Sokolov discovered numbers and signs that he interpreted as “kabbalistic.” From the inspection report of the room where the execution took place, we learn that there were four groups of numbers. “At a distance of half an inch from these inscriptions on the wallpaper of the wall, some signs are written in the same black lines.”
To date, no researcher has proven that these “signs” represent a meaningful phrase or have any semantic meaning at all. Most likely, the strokes that Sokolov recognized as “Kabbalistic signs” were a simple test of the pen.
People who look like rabbis
The third fact, according to supporters of the “ritual version,” is the testimony of witnesses that near the Ipatiev House and near the site of the destruction of the bodies of the Royal Family, people similar to rabbis with “jet-black beards” were seen.
The presence of people with black beards during the execution and hiding of corpses can be explained by the custom of wearing a beard. It is known that after the execution of the Royal Family and before leaving for Moscow, Yurovsky wore such a beard. As for any other signs of “rabbis” - details of clothing, headdresses, etc., there is not a word about this in the testimony of witnesses.
Severing heads and delivering them to the Kremlin
The old version of General Diterichs about the cutting off of the heads of the emperor, empress and crown prince, and their delivery to the Kremlin today is defended by Pyotr Valentinovich Multatuli in his book “Testifying of Christ to Death...”, published in 2006, decorating it with new “ritual details” ". Note that there was no evidence of this hypothesis (except for the fact that the White Guard investigation did not find any remains), everything is built only on assumptions. The investigation rightly considers the discovery of nine skulls in a burial opened in 1991 and fragments of two skulls found in 2007 to be the main argument that destroys all these speculations.
The final and categorical conclusion of the investigation regarding the entire complex of “ritual” arguments for the murder of the Royal Family is as follows: “the decision to shoot the entire royal family was not associated with any religious or mystical motives.”
Refuting the version of the “ritual” murder of the Royal Family is a good contribution to the study of the extremely important issue of the causes of the tragedy that occurred in Russia in the twentieth century. We have to admit that in explaining these reasons, a significant part of church society is inclined towards various ideas of conspiracies, and the enemies of Orthodoxy and Russia, regardless of the name (Masons, Jews, Satanists, world government, etc.) are endowed with some kind of mystical indestructible forces, resistance to which is futile. Not only does such a simplified perception of the historical process actually close the possibility of understanding the true causes of the tragedy, but it also undermines any will among modern Christians to resist evil.
5. Discovery and identification of remains
Although the determination of the burial places of the Royal Family is not a merit of the investigation, there is an evidence base confirming that in 1979, the Ryabov-Avdonin group found the grave of 9 members of the Royal Family and their servants, and in 2007, search engines found fragments of the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria was prepared by the investigation.
Conclusion
Despite all the above positive results of the investigation, a number of important issues remained unexplored. Apparently, this is why in September 2015, the Investigative Committee of Russia resumed the investigation into the death of the Royal Family. On September 23, investigators exhumed the remains of the Romanovs buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress and seized samples of the remains of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna.
We can only hope that in addition to repeating genetic examinations, which are unlikely to yield any new results, the investigation will complete the investigation in other important areas. Will answer questions about the role of Minister Shchelokov in the search for Ryabov, who laid the burial cable and when, will give an explanation for the small number of remains of 9 bodies, will be able to obtain and analyze samples of bone remains taken by Sokolov to Europe, and will also continue the search for other burial sites the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria.
What is the official investigation and scientific examination hiding in the case of the murder of the family of the last Russian emperor?
"The world will never know what we did to them..."
Commissioner Peter Voikov
(answering a question about the circumstances of Nikolai’s deathIIand his family)
The results of an unprecedented 24-year investigation into the belonging of the “Ekaterinburg remains” to the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas should soon be summed up II, shot in Ipatiev’s house on the night of July 16-17, 1918. The Patriarchal Commission and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church supported a comprehensive anthropological and historical examination. High-ranking scientists in Russia and other countries are studying molecular genetic and other data from the bones allegedly buried by the murderer of the royal family, Yakov Yurovsky, in a place called Porosenkovlog to make a final verdict on their authenticity.
Researchers were first brought to this location where the remains were found (on the Old Koptyakovskaya Road) by a note from Yurovsky, in which he describes in detail where and how he buried the corpses of the royal family. But why did the malicious killer give a detailed report to his descendants, where should they look for evidence of the crime? Moreover, a number of modern historians put forward the version that Yurovsky belonged to an occult sect and was certainly not interested in the further veneration of holy relics by believers. If he wanted to confuse the investigation in this way, then he definitely achieved his goal - the case of the murder of Nicholas II and his family under the symbolic number 18666 has been shrouded in a halo of secrecy for many years and contains a lot of contradictory data.
The burial commission, the head of which in 1998, for unknown reasons, was appointed by a former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, according to the estimates of today's researchers of the remains (in particular, Bishop Tikhona Shevkunova), performed her work in bad faith and committed many violations in her research. After this, at the request of the Orthodox public in 2015, President Vladimir Putin a decree was given to conduct a re-examination of the Ekaterinburg remains, involving highly professional experts in the case.
Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, in his recent report, described in detail how exactly the work of experts is carried out: samples for molecular genetic examination are sent to several similar researchers at once, after which final conclusions are drawn about the results. The work of the commission is carried out behind closed doors, in an atmosphere of strict secrecy. To avoid leakage of information, members of the commission signed non-disclosure documents, which also worries many Orthodox Christians.
It is known that in order to ensure the objectivity of the examination, an autopsy of the king’s grave was also recently carried out AlexandraIII to take samples of biomaterial from his skull. Despite the fact that the procedure was carried out with all the rituals provided for by the Orthodox Church - memorial services and other prayers, the moral aspect of this action is questioned by Orthodox believers. And in general, anthropological and genetic examination is not welcomed by the people of God in the study of relics.
The Orthodox are afraid that they will end up with results that are incompatible with their ideas, because on Ganina Yama, where tens of thousands of pilgrims flock every year on Tsar’s Day (July 17-18), miracles and healings occur. According to believers, this is where the grace of God is clearly present. In the event of a “transfer” of the holy place where the relics were found from Ganina Yama to Porosenkov Log, believers will be, in a sense, lost.
“Our religious procession will be divided in two - some of the pilgrims will go from the Church on the Blood to Ganina Yama, while the other will go to Porosenkov Log,” the Orthodox community sadly jokes.
In addition to the religious problem of analyzing the Ekaterinburg remains, it is of a legal and cultural nature. Many circumstances indicate that the murder of the royal family is an act of human ritual sacrifice. The four-digit inscription in the basement of the Ipatiev House is an encrypted message left in accordance with cabalistic rituals. However, for some reason the modern investigation diligently ignores this fact.
“In the lifetime edition of the book (by the first investigator in the case of the murder of the royal family) Nikolai Sokolov there is a subtle hint at the ritual nature of the crime in the description of the four-digit inscription in the Ipatiev basement. There is no such hint in the posthumous edition,” says the historian. Leonid Bolotin, who has been researching this topic for 20 years.
“After many years of studying materials about the regicide, I believe that the regicides used Jewish rituals, not Hasidic or Pharisees, but Sadducean rituals. And the postcard with a sacrificial rooster with the head of a sovereign in the hands of a Hasidic rabbi was created precisely by the Sadducees, the world bankers, in order to turn the arrows of regicide on the dark Hasidim.
The Ekaterinburg regicide rituals are fundamentally different from the Hasidic human sacrifices known from the Saratov, Velezh cases and other high-profile murders, which are described by the famous ethnographer, writer and military doctor IN AND. Dahl. According to Hasidic rituals, one should not destroy or hide the victim, but must leave it. As you know, they did not do this with the bodies of the royal martyrs - they were burned. This is rather reminiscent of the burning of human victims in ancient Carthage.
The Sadducees, for their conspiracy purposes, used the Phoenician (Carthaginian, Hebrew) alphabet, and the four-character inscription in the Ipatiev basement was made in Hebrew letters,” notes Bolotin.
It is worth adding that the criminal case of the murder of the royal family has now been resumed and expanded, and its ritual nature (raising little doubt among the Orthodox public) is one of the working versions.
“Ritual killings are happening all over the world. If someone denies them, he is simply an idiot who believes in the “official” media. There are known ritual murders of Christians by Jews who are now canonized by the church - for example, a baby GabrielBialystok and others. If we recognized the murder of royal martyrs as ritual, and with it the fact that Lenin-Blank And Trotsky-Bronstein involved in satanic rituals - this would completely change the situation in the understanding of the events of October 1917, in the political life of the country. We would see what forces were really behind the revolution, we would realize that they were far from atheists.
Look what is happening now - how many media outlets are involved in ensuring that these remains are recognized as royal relics. A huge amount of material and human resources are involved... and it is unlikely that all this was done in the interests of truth, in the interests of Russia », - the publicist is convinced IgorFriend.
Regarding the expert opinion on the remains, all citizens who respect the history of our country have every right to express doubts and ask questions - after all, we are talking about the holy relics of the Sovereign, canonized by the Church of the last Russian emperor. Fraudling the results of this study would be akin to a national crime.
“It is possible that another anti-church provocation awaits us. Most Orthodox Christians do not want to identify the Ekaterinburg remains with the royal ones. Problems in the examination began with a gross violation of the rules for examining bodies. They were dug in unsanitary conditions. The purity of the experiment could have been violated, the historian said PeterMultituli at the scientific conference “Ekaterinburg remains: where is the truth and where is the fiction?”, which took place on June 18, 2017.
The very first investigation of the “white” investigator Sokolov, who was certainly interested in revealing the truth, showed that the bodies of the martyrs were destroyed using gasoline and sulfuric acid. There are witnesses, for example, a forester Rednikov, who discovered burnt bones, a finger that belonged to the empress Alexandra Fedorovna, sebaceous masses, fat left over from burning bodies. Witnesses saw 640 liters of gasoline, 9-10 pounds of sulfuric acid, brought by order of the Bolshevik Voikova, also involved in this case...
Supporters of the version about the authenticity of the Yekaterinburg remains rely primarily on a note from the murderer of the royal family, Yurovsky, who deliberately set everyone on the wrong trail. He told in detail where and when he buried the corpses of the royal family. Not only did he not try to hide this information, but he also disseminated it as much as possible. For what?
Judging by the actual data, on the night of July 17, Yurovsky remained in the Ipatiev House after the bodies of the murdered were taken away. He sent for people to clean up the blood in the room. It was not difficult for Yurovsky to destroy the remains of the corpses. The events in the forest were most likely completely invented by him.
Yurovsky was also not in Porosenkov Log on July 19 and did not bury the corpses. Many of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the “burial ground” of the royal family there are false.”
By the way, Peter Multatuli himself is the great-grandson of the cook Ivan Kharitonov, murdered in the Ipatiev House along with the royal family, and devoted a significant part of his life to discovering the truth about this fateful event.
At the same conference, a former investigator for particularly important cases of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation addressed the audience Vladimir Solovyov, to whom in the 90s of the last century was entrusted with the conduct of the criminal case into the murder of the royal family, which consisted of 26 volumes.
According to Solovyov’s official conclusion, the “ritual version” of the murder has been ruled out, and the investigation does not have any evidence of the involvement of Lenin or any other representative of the top leadership of the Bolsheviks in the destruction of the royal family. Allegedly, this was a private decision of the Ural Regional Council, which was later conveyed to the presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Leninist Council of People's Commissars. And the “burial of several people in the form of stacked skeletal remains,” found in 1991, certainly belongs to the royal family (only two bodies were burned).
Actually, Solovyov repeated this version in his speech. However, social activists and historians asked the investigator (who, by the way, is still under a subscription not to disclose documents in the case) a number of pressing questions:
“The procedure for removing the remains was grossly violated several times - is it possible to use such evidence in criminal proceedings? And many scientists consider the method of genetic testing itself unreliable - is there any unity on this issue?” - asked the religious expert Vladimir Semenko, but no clear answers were received.
Neither the leadership of the Russian Church nor representatives of the Romanov family came to the pathetic burial of the Ekaterinburg remains in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1998. Moreover, then Patriarch Alexy II made Boris Yeltsin promise that he would not call the remains royal - and the president kept this word.
There are also purely scientific contradictions. Professor Lev Zhivotovsky, Head of the Center for Human DNA Identification, Institute of General Genetics. Vavilov, conducted his own independent examinations in two institutes in America, comparing the DNA of the queen’s sister Elizaveta Fedorovna with the remains found in Piglet Log. Analysis showed that they have nothing in common. A similar result was obtained by DNA analysis of the remains considered to be those of Nicholas II, with the genes of his own nephew Tikhon Nikolaevich Kulikovsky-Romanov.
Soon after this, a criminologist from Japan unexpectedly visited the Moscow Patriarchate for Alexy II Tatsuo Nagai, Director of the Forensic Science Department at Kitasato University . He announced that the analysis of sweat from the lining of Nicholas II’s frock coat and the blood data remaining in Japan after the assassination attempt on the emperor when he was Tsarevich coincided with the result of an analysis of blood samples from the Tsar’s nephew Tikhon Kulikovsky-Romanov and did not coincide with the “Ekaterinburg remains.” So here, at least, “not everything is so simple.”
Today it is obvious that new facts have emerged in this complicated case, otherwise it would not have been resumed with the involvement of such powerful resources. Just what these facts are - alas, no one knows, which gives rise to many new conjectures.
Already in November of this year, a detailed conclusion of the commission on the issue of the identity of the Yekaterinburg remains is expected. Around the same time, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church will take place, which will issue its verdict. Whether it will become the cause of another schism in Russia or, on the contrary, will strengthen the Orthodox faith - time and the reaction of the people will tell. “What determines the holiness of relics - God’s grace or DNA chains?” - Believers ironically asked at the conference on the royal remains...
The question is rather rhetorical, but the subtext is clear - modern examinations should not become a screen for distorting the truth. According to the Orthodox community, the end to this matter will be put not by an investigation hidden from everyone, but by an open scientific and historical discussion.
Varvara Gracheva
This book, based on investigative documents, is dedicated to one of the tragic pages of Russian and world history - the murder of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family in the Urals in the summer of 1918. This publication contains all the chapters of the work of investigator N.A. Sokolov (1882–1924), published in Berlin the year after the author’s death. This book contains all chapters and is published without abbreviations, which are sometimes found in other publications. In this regard, this book also contains materials concerning the investigation into the murder of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich in Perm, as well as Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, who was tortured near Alapaevsk, with other representatives of the House of Romanov and their companions. The publication is intended for everyone interested in Russian history.
Nikolay Sokolov
Murder of the royal family
Preface
A century has passed since one of the most terrible tragedies in Russian history - the murder of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in the Urals. Investigation materials N.A. Sokolov helped uncover many of the secrets of this brutal crime.
Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov was born in 1882 in the Penza province. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Kharkov University. The revolution found him in the position of judicial investigator in the most important cases in Penza. After the revolutionary coup, Sokolov made his way to Siberia on foot. There he was appointed to the post of judicial investigator for particularly important cases of the Omsk District Court, and he was soon entrusted with the investigation into the murder of the royal family. Based on various evidence, as well as numerous evidence and objects found at the scene of the crime and the destruction of the remains of the Romanov family, Sokolov tried to restore as accurately as possible the course of the tragic events of July 1918. After the defeat of the army of A.V. Kolchak Sokolov emigrated to China, then moved to Europe. In France, he continued to interview anyone who could add something new to his investigation. He published part of the investigation materials in French. On November 23, 1924, Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov was found dead near his home in Salbri. The following year, his book “The Murder of the Royal Family” was published in Russian. According to some researchers, it shows signs of editing by outsiders. Nevertheless, this work is the most valuable material in the case of the murder of the royal family and other representatives of the Romanov dynasty in the Urals. N.A. was buried Sokolov at the cemetery in Salbri. On his grave was written “Thy Truth is Truth forever.”
Materials N.A. Sokolov is organically complemented by the book of Lieutenant General M.K. Dieterichs, who played an important role in the investigation of the murder of the royal family. The general carefully monitored the progress of the investigation and helped Sokolov in every possible way. In 1922, in Vladivostok, he published the book “The Murder of the Royal Family and Members of the House of Romanov in the Urals.”
From the author
It fell to my lot to conduct an investigation into the murder of Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II and his family.
Within the limits of the law, I tried to do everything possible to find the truth and maintain it for future generations.
I did not think that I myself would have to talk about it, hoping that the Russian national government would establish it with its authoritative verdict. But harsh reality does not promise favorable conditions for this in the near future, and inexorable time puts its stamp of oblivion on everything.
I do not at all pretend that I know all the facts and through them all the truth. But to this day I know her more than anyone else.
The mournful pages about the suffering of the Tsar speak of the suffering of Russia. And, having decided to break the vow of my professional silence, I took upon myself the full weight of responsibility in the consciousness that serving the law is serving the good of the people.
I know that in this research the inquisitive human mind will not find answers to many questions: it is necessarily limited, because its main subject is murder.
But the victim of the crime is the bearer of supreme power, who ruled for many years one of the most powerful nations.
Like any fact, it happened in space and time and, in particular, in the conditions of the greatest struggle of the people for their destiny.
Both of these factors: the personality of the victim and the reality in which the crime was committed give it a special character: a historical phenomenon.
“One of the hallmarks of a great people is its ability to rise to its feet after a fall. No matter how severe its humiliation, the hour will strike, it will gather its confused moral forces and embody them in one great man or in several great men, who will lead him onto the straight historical road he had temporarily abandoned."
No historical process is conceivable outside the ideas of the past. In this past of ours there is a grave crime: the murder of the Tsar and his family.
I would like to serve my native people by telling a truthful story.
Therefore, remembering the words of the great Russian historian, I tried, no matter how temptingly vivid my personal memories of the experience were at times, to present the facts based solely on the data of a strict legal investigation.
This transfer was caused, on the one hand, by the behavior of Nametkin himself, and on the other, by the situation of that time.
In the face of facts pointing to the murder, if not of the entire royal family, then at least of the Emperor himself, the military authorities, which alone ensured order in the first days of the capture of Yekaterinburg, presented Nametkin, as an investigator for the most important cases, with a decisive demand to begin an immediate investigation.
Based on the letter of the law, Nametkin told the military authorities that he did not have the right to begin an investigation and would not begin it until he received a proposal from the court prosecutor, who was absent in the first days of the liberation of Yekaterinburg.
Nametkin's behavior caused great indignation against him both in the military environment and in society. They did not believe in the purity of his boundless respect for the law. Some accused him of cowardice in front of the Bolsheviks, who continued to threaten Yekaterinburg, others went further in their suspicions.
The investigator in the royal family murder case insisted on its ritual nature and died mysteriously in Paris in 1924.
On November 23, 1924, 42-year-old Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov was found dead in the garden near his French house. According to the official version, his death was caused by a broken heart, but its circumstances caused a lot of misunderstandings (for example, it was reported that he died from both poisoning and a gunshot wound).
The mystery of this death is due to the fact that Sokolov was not just one of the many Russian emigrants, but an investigator in the case of the murder of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. He spent six years investigating this crime, five of them abroad. That is, he was the owner of unique information. At the same time, part of the documents he collected disappeared, and with what remained they obviously “worked” later, doing everything to prove that the terrible crime in Yekaterinburg was “an ordinary Russian murder.”
Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov was born on May 21, 1882 in Mokshan, Penza province, into a merchant family. He graduated from a gymnasium in Penza, then from the Faculty of Law of Kharkov University and in 1907 became a forensic investigator in the Krasnoslobodsky district of his native Mokshansky district. During this difficult time, Sokolov attracted attention by participating in the investigation of many difficult cases, and in 1911 he was appointed investigator for the most important cases of the Penza District Court.
In 1914, he received the rank of court councilor, which, according to the military table of ranks, corresponds to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Despite his relative youth, he was elected chairman of the Union of Forensic Investigators of the Penza District Court, which says a lot.
BLOODY FONT OF REVOLUTIONS
Sokolov perceived the February and especially the October Revolution as a disaster. He received the news of the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II with pain and resolutely refused to cooperate with the Soviet authorities. On the contrary, he resigned from service and, disguised as a peasant, set off on foot to Siberia, to join the whites.
Hiding from the Bolsheviks during his flight from Penza (and he moved through Syzran and Ufa), Nikolai Alekseevich soon became like a real tramp. And then his kind and fair attitude towards criminals, shown in the past, saved his life.
In the book of Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs, whom Kolchak at one time appointed head of the commission to investigate the murder of the imperial family (then General Diterichs was Kolchak’s chief of staff), there is a story about how in one village Sokolov accidentally came across a man who had been exposed three years before. them in robbery and murder. The man was sentenced to a long term, but the revolution freed him and gave him the opportunity to return to his native village. He, of course, recognized Sokolov, and Sokolov recognized him.
There were Red Army soldiers all around, and the man could easily take revenge. However, the recent “murderer” did not do this; he invited the former investigator to his hut, fed him and let him spend the night. And the next morning, when sending Nikolai Alekseevich away, he brought him an old hat and handed it to him with the words: “Here, take this, your hat is too good, they’ll guess.”
INVESTIGATOR FOR PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT CASES
Having reached the Whites, Sokolov was appointed to the Omsk District Court as a judicial investigator for particularly important cases. It must be said that Yekaterinburg was recaptured from the Bolsheviks on July 25, 1918. And already on July 30, a judicial investigation into the murder of the imperial family began. Initially, it was entrusted to the judicial investigator of the Yekaterinburg District Court A.P. Nametkin. Then the case was taken away from him and transferred to a member of the court, I. A. Sergeev.
On November 18, 1918, supreme power was concentrated in the hands of Admiral Kolchak. On January 17, 1919, the admiral gave the order to the aforementioned General Dieterichs to present to him all the found belongings of the imperial family, as well as all the investigation materials. In accordance with this order, Judge Sergeev, by resolution dated January 25, 1919, gave General Dieterikhs the investigative reports and all the material evidence, and in early February the general delivered all this to Omsk, at the disposal of the Supreme Ruler.
On February 5, Admiral Kolchak summoned N.A. Sokolov and ordered him to familiarize himself with the case materials and then present his opinion on the further procedure of the investigation.
On February 7, 1919, Sokolov received a corresponding order from the Minister of Justice. On the same day, he accepted all the investigative reports and material evidence from General Dieterichs, and it was from that moment that Nikolai Alekseevich began his hard work to solve the murder of the former emperor and members of his family.
He himself later wrote: “I was instructed to investigate the murder of the emperor and his family. From a legal point of view, I tried to do everything possible to find the truth and bring it to future generations."
“The Supreme Ruler of Russia.
No. 588/B 32, Omsk city.
EVERYONE
I hereby command all places and persons to fulfill unquestioningly and precisely all the legal requirements of the judicial investigator for especially important cases N. A. Sokolov and to assist him in fulfilling the duties assigned to him by my will in conducting preliminary investigations into the murder of the former emperor, his family and great princes.
Admiral A. Kolchak.
Acting Director of the Office
Supreme Ruler, Major General V. Martyanov.”
COVER OF THE PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION CASE ON THE MURDER OF NICHOLAS II
SOKOLOV INVESTIGATION
On March 4, 1919, N. A. Sokolov left for Yekaterinburg and Alapaevsk. There he worked until June 11, 1919. He personally inspected Ipatiev’s house in Yekaterinburg, found eyewitnesses and interrogated witnesses. Unfortunately, the case fell into the hands of Sokolov very late, which is why many traces and details of the crime managed to disappear.
As soon as the snow melted, Sokolov organized search operations in the ominous tract of the Four Brothers and for many kilometers around. A total of 29 mines were examined. After this, the investigator concluded: the imperial family was killed, the corpses were dismembered and burned with kerosene, and the charred remains were destroyed with sulfuric acid.
In the course of a painstaking investigation, it was established that, in addition to the family of the former emperor, in 1918-1919, “a whole group of Romanovs” who, for one reason or another, remained in Russia, were destroyed. The first to be killed in Perm was Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. Plus, the Grand Dukes Pavel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Nikolai Mikhailovich and Georgy Mikhailovich were shot in Petrograd.
And exactly one day after the murder in Yekaterinburg in Alapaevsk, the Grand Dukes Sergei Mikhailovich, Igor Konstantinovich, Ivan Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Prince Vladimir Paley, the sister of the Empress Elizaveta Fedorovna and the nun Varvara (in the world Varvara Alekseevna Yakovleva) were executed.
N. A. Sokolov’s immediate superior, General Diterichs, characterizing all these murders, called them “particularly exceptional in brutality and fanaticism, full of great significance, character and meaning for the future history of the Russian people.”
Nikolai Alekseevich himself, at the end of February 1919, published in the Omsk newspaper “Zarya” some of the results of his investigation into the murder of Nicholas II and his family.
After the capture of Yekaterinburg by the Reds (July 15, 1919), Sokolov continued his work. During the white retreat, he conducted interrogations of witnesses and examinations. Then followed a long and dangerous journey through Omsk and Chita to Harbin: it was necessary to save the investigative materials.
FROM SIBERIA TO EUROPE
In December 1924, the Belgrade newspaper “Novoe Vremya” published an article “On the grave of N. A. Sokolov,” signed by a certain A. Irin. Who is this Irin? According to one version, it could be Boris Lvovich Brazol, who at one time served as an assistant to the Minister of Justice I. G. Shcheglovitov and was one of the most active figures of the Black Hundred.
He knew Sokolov personally, and in the article he wrote:
“In Harbin, Sokolov came to the English diplomatic representative, explained to him what a precious cargo he was carrying, and therefore asked for protection and assistance in transporting the case to Europe. The English diplomat reacted very sympathetically to Sokolov. He had no doubt that the government would allow the petitioner to be met halfway, and on the same day he telegraphed to London. The answer was completely unexpected: Lloyd George ordered to stop all relations with Sokolov, leaving him to worry about the fate of the case entrusted to him.
After the British refused to help save the investigation into the murder of the family of their king's cousin, Sokolov turned to the French general Janin, who provided Sokolov with a compartment on his train. Thanks to this circumstance, Sokolov arrived safely in Beijing […] Janin considered it his duty to help Sokolov in any way he could, and therefore, at his own peril and risk, he accepted from the investigator all the investigative material with physical evidence and delivered it completely safe to Paris, where he handed it over to the Russian Ambassador Giers. Following this, Sokolov also arrived in Paris.”
Note that Maurice Janin was the head of the French mission under the Kolchak government, and it was he who helped Sokolov get to France. And there the meticulous investigator continued to work, interrogating everyone who had anything to do with this case. He was absolutely sure that the investigation was far from over.
Unfortunately, out of 50 boxes with documents and evidence from Siberia, only 29 reached Vladivostok. Some of the investigative materials disappeared on the way to Europe, and another part - after the mysterious death of Sokolov.
SOKOLOV IN PARIS
On June 16, 1920, Sokolov arrived in Paris. In France, he compiled a report on the investigation into the murder of the imperial family for the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Eight volumes of the case were prepared for submission to the court.
Nikolai Alekseevich wrote: “No historical process is conceivable outside the ideas of the past. In this past of ours there is a grave crime: the murder of the king and his family. I would like to serve my native people by telling a truthful story.”
And, it must be said, he published part of the investigation materials in 1924 in French (Nicolas Sokoloff. Enquête judiciaire sur l’assassinat de la Famille Impériale Russe. Paris, 1924).
The mentioned A. Irin in the article “At the grave of N. A. Sokolov”, published in December 1924 in the Belgrade newspaper “Novoe Vremya”, claims that Nikolai Alekseevich was doomed “to premature death on the day when the late Admiral Kolchak ordered him begin the investigation into the regicide."
By the way, Robert Archibald Wilton also died “suddenly” and also in France (two months after Sokolov’s death). He was not even sixty, and this Englishman is famous for the fact that he worked in Russia during the First World War, the October Revolution and the Civil War. He is also the author of the book “The Last Days of the Romanovs.” He arrived in Yekaterinburg in April 1919 and became... one of the most active participants in the investigation into the circumstances of the murder of the imperial family. Perhaps there is no need to continue? Let us only add that Wilton, on Sokolov’s instructions, kept one of the copies of the investigative file.
In the photo: GRAVE N.A. SOKOLOVA
SECOND BOOK OF SOKOLOV
As for Sokolov, his unfinished book “The Murder of the Royal Family” was published in 1925. It first saw the light of day in France, thanks to the efforts of Prince Nikolai Vladimirovich Orlov, a friend of the deceased, who also lived in Salbris.
The 1924 and 1925 editions (in French and Russian) are very different from each other, and, according to some historians, the second book shows clear signs of editing by outsiders. Because of this, Sokolov’s full authorship is called into question, and a comparison of this publication with the work of the same Wilton provides grounds for this. In any case, the book contains a number of abbreviations regarding the circumstances of the murder, its participants and organizers, etc.
Sokolov himself wrote: “I by no means pretend that I know all the facts and through them the whole truth. But to this day I know her more than anyone else.” But Doctor of Philology T.L. Mironova, who specially dealt with this issue, claims that his posthumous book was “finished” by people interested in hiding the truth, that the falsifiers “crossed out pieces of text that were unfavorable to them” and “had the audacity to write into the text Sokolov’s openly slanderous chapters and paragraphs.” In short, it turns out that this book is a very important source on the history of the regicide, but “it cannot be trusted entirely,” because it is “a partially falsified document.”
Prince N. V. Orlov in the preface to the book warns that it was not completed by the author. But we already know this, but who was this Orlov? He was the son of Prince V.N. Orlov, head of the emperor’s military campaign office, a freemason and the sworn enemy of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who was dismissed from this position and removed from the palace.
Sam N. V. Orlov was still very young in 1925, but he, according to T. L. Mironova, “acted as Sokolov’s “trustee” and “benefactor” not on his own behalf, but on behalf of his clan.” And this clan included not only her father, but also her wife (she was Grand Duchess Nadezhda Petrovna Romanova), and through her - her father, Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich and her uncle, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, who betrayed the emperor and, on the eve of the revolution, formed a nest of intrigues against him.
What did the people interested in this change in Sokolov’s book? According to T. L. Mironova, “when making changes to this document, the falsifiers removed the issue of ritual murder, it was shown that the main culprits in the death of the royal family were Russian people, the blame for the death of Russia and the autocracy was placed on the emperor and empress, and their murder presented as an inevitable consequence of close communication with Grigory Rasputin.”
Investigator N. A. Sokolov established that the direct killer of Emperor Nicholas II and the 13-year-old heir Alexei was the commandant of the Ipatiev House, security officer Yankel Khaimovich Yurovsky. Sokolov writes:
“Yurovsky said a few words, addressing the sovereign, and was the first to shoot at the sovereign. Immediately, volleys of villains were heard, and they all fell dead. The death of everyone was instantaneous, except for Alexei Nikolaevich and one of the princesses, apparently Anastasia Nikolaevna. Yankel Yurovsky finished off Alexei Nikolaevich with a revolver, Anastasia Nikolaevna - one of the others.”
As for the “rest,” Yurovsky clearly doubted the readiness of the Russian people to shoot the Romanovs without trial, and therefore he brought an international team of executioners to the Ipatiev House. All of them did not speak Russian and were by no means “Russian workers,” as some claim.
Plus, the investigation proved that the organization of the murder was personally led by Ya. M. Sverdlov, the son of the engraver Miraim Izrailevich Sverdlov. It was to Sverdlov that all the threads of this ritual bloodshed converged...
In addition, Sokolov collected information about the involvement in the murder of the non-Russian banker Jacob (Jacob) Schiff, who financed the revolution in Russia.
However, strangely, in the book “The Murder of the Royal Family” published in 1925, no attention was paid to the topic of ritual murder and the involvement of people of a certain nationality in this.
A. Irin, in an article published in December 1924 in the Belgrade newspaper “Novoe Vremya”, expresses himself quite clearly on this matter. He argues that Sokolov’s arrival in Paris was very dangerous for people of a certain nationality, and for them the urgent task was “the need, if not to completely undermine confidence in Sokolov’s work, then, if possible, to weaken the impression that could be caused by the disclosure of some of the circumstances of the regicide.”
The article also says:
“The investigator operated with irrefutable evidence of the immutable truth that the murder of the royal family was planned, led and carried out with the leading and direct participation of Jews […] The entire conspiracy to murder the royal family and members of the imperial family was concentrated entirely in the hands of Yankel Sverdlov, direct the executors of whose orders were his relatives.”
CONTACTS WITH HENRY FORD
The following fact is also of interest: Sokolov was supposed to go to America to visit automaker Henry Ford, known for his anti-Semitic views. He invited him as the main witness to the upcoming trial against... including the banking house founded by Schiff.
A. Irin talks about it this way: “The story of Sokolov’s trip to Ford can be summarized in a nutshell. Last year […] I received a proposal to inform Sokolov that the famous automobile king Ford is interested in his work, in view of the upcoming process.” According to him, Ford “was very interested in the essence of Sokolov’s work and expressed a desire to personally question him about the results of the investigation.”
Do not know? But in 1923, it was Ford who paid for Brazol’s trip (if he is this same Irin) to Paris so that he could purchase materials on the murder of the imperial family from Sokolov. But instead of materials, Brasol brought Sokolov himself to Ford. In 1979, Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published the book “The Romanov Case, or the Execution that Never Happened,” and it states that Prince N.V. Orlov also came with Sokolov.
Sokolov allegedly looked like “a very nervous and very exhausted man.” But negotiations with Ford were suddenly interrupted, and one of Ford’s employees later wrote: “Sokolov’s documents are very similar to the truth, but, of course, it is impossible to assert these facts without a thorough examination of their content.”
So, in 1923, Henry Ford invited Sokolov to review the results of his investigation. The trial was supposed to begin in February 1925, and on November 23, 1924, as already mentioned, Sokolov “suddenly died.” And what’s typical is that during the investigator’s meeting with the automobile king, the latter advised him not to return to Europe, saying that this return would threaten him with danger. But Sokolov did not listen to Ford, who probably had good reasons for saying what he said.
As a result, Ford “settled the conflict” out of court, including by paying a very large sum. However, he retracted his anti-Semitic statements and sent a letter of apology to the press. And on the modest grave of Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov in the French town of Salbri, the words from the Psalter are engraved: “Thy righteousness is righteousness forever!”
For almost a hundred years, the investigation into the case of the royal family has been going on, like the joke, when a drunk man stands under a lantern and is looking for something, passers-by turn to him: “What did you lose?” He answers: - Wallet! Passers-by: - Where did you lose it? The man holds out his hand and says: “Over there in the bushes!” Passers-by are perplexed: - Why are you looking here? To which the man replies with a grin: “It’s brighter here.”
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation decided to sharply increase the status of the “royal case”: from now on it is being dealt with by a large investigative team under the command of the acting head of the department for the investigation of particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee Igor Krasnov.
From the moment of initiation of case No. 18/123666-93 (August 19, 1993) until recently, the investigation was led by Vladimir Solovyov, a senior forensic investigator of the Main Directorate of Criminalistics of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
The first investigators in the “Royal Family” case were Malinovsky, Nametkin, Sergeev, Kirsta, and the documents of various investigators were copied - whoever could and wanted. Among the first to make copies and make duplicates was Tomsk University professor E.V. Dil; former French teacher for the children of the Tsar P. P. Gilliard; correspondent of the London Times R. Wilton, lieutenant Count Kapnist B.M.
Sokolov compiled his protocols in duplicate, and made double copies of the documents of his predecessors.
At first, the investigation was formally divided into two criminal cases: the execution of the Royal Family and the murder of the Grand Dukes in Alapaevsk. Later, Sokolov divided the materials into 4 cases, assigning them numbers 20, 21, 22 and 23!
The case according to the desktop register No. 20 - 1919, is listed as having begun on 02/07/1919, and is called about the “murder of the Royal Family and their servants”; volumes 1 and 9 are located in Russia. They cover investigative work from July 30, 1918, to January 20, 1919, and from July 20. to October 24, 1920; and case No. 20 should have consisted of 14 volumes!
Some consolation is that in Sokolov’s archive, exhibited in 1990 at Sotheby’s, there were 12 volumes, 2 were missing, most likely 1 and 9, returned to the USSR from Germany in 1945.
Case No. 21 is named by Sokolov: “On the murder on the night of July 18, 1918, in Alapaevsk, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, princes Ivan Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich, Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, who were members of the August persons Fedor a Semenovich Remez and Varvara Yakovleva.”
The documents in the case are original and presented in the first copies. They amounted to one volume and have been in Russia since 1945. The main work was carried out by I. A. Sergeev and various ranks.
N.A. Sokolov was responsible for several interrogations and examination of documents. One volume consisted of materials from case No. 23 “On the murder on the night of June 13, 1918, in Perm, V.K. Mikhail Alexandrovich and his secretary Nikolai Nikolaevich Johnson.” The proceedings are considered to have begun on December 22, 1919, after the materials from case No. 20 were allocated to independent proceedings.
But on October 8, 1919, Sokolov issued a resolution on the need to investigate the disappearance of Mikhail Romanov as part of an independent criminal case. This case has also existed in Russia since 1945. But in Russia there is no case No. 22 “On the fact of the disappearance of the Royal Family.”
On July 25, 1918, Yekaterinburg was occupied by White Czechs and Cossacks. Great excitement grew among the officers when it became known in what condition the Ipatiev House, where the Royal Family lived, was located.
The head of the garrison, Major General Golitsyn, appointed a special commission of officers, mainly cadets of the Academy of the General Staff, chaired by Colonel Sherekhovsky.
The first commandant of Yekaterinburg, Colonel Sherekhovsky, appointed Malinovsky as head of a team of officers tasked with dealing with the finds in the Ganina Yama area.
Captain of the Life Guards, 2nd Artillery Brigade, Dmitry Apollonovich Malinovsky, born in St. Petersburg, a participant in the First World War, in May 1918, arrived in Yekaterinburg and entered the senior course of the General Staff Academy evacuated here. From her listeners, he put together a group of officers ready to help him and began to collect information about the detention of prisoners in Ipatiev’s house. Through Doctor Derevenko, he received a plan of the house, found out who was being held where, and received information about the changing of the guards of the Royal Family.
Malinovsky proposed either to capture the Don River when Kolchak’s troops approached; or kidnap the Sovereign with a daring attack. On July 29, Captain Malinovsky received an order to explore the Ganina Yama area.
On July 30, taking with him Sheremetyevsky, the investigator for the most important cases of the Yekaterinburg District Court A.P. Nametkin, several officers, the doctor of the Heir - V.N. Derevenko and the servant of the Sovereign - T.I. Chemodurov, he went there. Thus began the investigation into the disappearance of Sovereign Nicholas II, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses.
Malinovsky's commission lasted about a week. But it was she who determined the area of all subsequent investigative actions in Yekaterinburg and its environs. It was she who found witnesses to the cordon of the Koptyakovskaya road around Ganina Yama by the Red Army.
After the entire staff of officers went to Koptyaki, Sherekhovsky divided the team into two parts. One, headed by Malinovsky, examined Ipatiev’s house, the other, led by Lieutenant Sheremetyevsky, began inspecting Ganina Yama. When inspecting Ipatiev’s house, the officers of Malinovsky’s group managed to establish almost all the facts on which the investigation relied within a week.
A year after the investigation, Malinovsky , in June 1919, testified during interrogation to investigator Sokolov: “ As a result of my work on this case, I have become convinced that The august family is alive. It seemed to me that the Bolsheviks shot someone in the room to simulate the murder of the August family, they took her out at night along the road to Koptyaki, also for the purpose of simulating a murder, here they dressed her in a peasant dress and then took her away from here somewhere, and burned her clothes».
On July 28, A.P. Nametkin was invited to the headquarters of the Czech General Gaida, and from the military authorities, since the civilian government had not yet been formed, he was asked to investigate the case of the Royal Family.
Having begun the inspection of the Ipatiev House, Doctor Derevenko and old man Chemodurov were invited to participate in the identification of things; Professor of the Academy of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Medvedev, took part as an expert. After inspecting Ipatiev’s house on July 28, 1918, the commission went to Popov’s house, where the security team was located. But the inspection of Popov’s house was not even included in the protocol.
Lieutenant A. Sheremetyevsky stated that he was hiding in a dacha in the village of Koptyaki, and heard from residents about the maneuvers of the Red Army on July 16-17 in the area of the “four brothers” tract, and the peasant Alferov found the Maltese cross there. The cross was the same as he had seen it on one of the Grand Duchesses.
To check, the commander of the Czech units, General Gaida, sent a commission of officers from the General Staff Academy and the judicial official Nametkin. They were accompanied by the court doctor and valet - V. Derevenko and T. Chemadurov.
Nametkin signed the inspection report dated July 30 while still acting. d. investigator for the most important cases of the Yekaterinburg court, but on that day already had a formal order from the prosecutor to “start an investigation.”
On July 30, Alexey Pavlovich Nametkin participated in the inspection of the mine and fires near Ganina Yama. After which, the Koptyakovsky peasant handed over to Captain Politkovsky a huge diamond, recognized by Chemodurov as the jewel of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.
On July 31, Nametkin received the protocol of the interrogation (by I. D. Prosecutor of the Yekaterinburg Court) by Kutuzov of the peasant Fyodor Nikitich Gorshkov about the death of members of the Royal Family. Moreover, Gorshkov himself was not an eyewitness to the tragedy, but conveyed to Nametkin the contents of his conversation with investigator Mikhail Vladimirovich Tomashevsky, who also referred to a certain “informed” person.
Nametkin, inspecting the Ipatva house from August 2 to 8, had at his disposal publications of resolutions of the Urals Council and the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which reported on the execution of Nicholas II. An inspection of the building confirmed a well-known fact - the unexpected disappearance of its inhabitants.
On August 7, 1918, a meeting of the branches of the Yekaterinburg District Court was held, where unexpectedly for the prosecutor Kutuzov, contrary to agreements with the chairman of the court Glasson, the Yekaterinburg District Court, by a majority vote, decided to transfer the “case of the murder of the former Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II” to court member Ivan Alexandrovich Sergeev.
A.P. Nametkin fulfilling the decision of the Chairman of the Yekaterinburg District Court V. Kazem-Bek for No. 45 of August 8; demands of the prosecutor of the Court Kutuzov No. 195 of August 10; repeated demand of the Chairman of the Yekaterinburg Court V. Kazem-Bek No. 56 of August 12 to transfer the case of Sovereign Nicholas II.
On August 13, A.P. Nametkin handed over the “royal case” on 26 numbered sheets to court member I.A. Sergeev for further proceedings.
As an experienced investigator, Nametkin , after examining the scene of the incident, stated that A mock execution took place in the Ipatiev House and that not a single member of the Royal Family was shot there.
He repeated his data officially in Omsk, where he gave an interview to foreign correspondents on this topic. Stating that he had evidence that the Royal Family was not killed on the night of July 16-17, and was going to publish these documents soon. For this, he was forced to transfer the investigation, and after the transfer of the case, the house where he rented the premises was burned, which led to the death of Nametkin’s investigative archive.
After the capture of Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks, Nametkin was shot (according to Diterichs). Sergeev found new ones evidence contradicting rumors about the murder of the Tsar . Several witnesses saw how Nicholas II was seated in a carriage, and another witness repeated the words of the guard of the House of Special Purpose, Varakushev, saying: “The bitch Goloshchekin is lying all the time, but in fact the Royal Family was sent by train to Perm.” There were witnesses who saw the Empress and her children in Perm.
In connection with the capture of Perm by the White troops, Sergeev, through General Pepelyaev, asked to detain: Chairman of the Verkh-Isetsky Executive Committee S.P. Malyshkin, military commissar P.Z. Ermakov (1884+1952), Bolsheviks N.S. Partin, V.I. Levatnykh , A. Kostousov, P. S. Medvedev, Y. Kh. Yurovsky, having information that some of them were imprisoned in Perm prison and to save their lives at the present time.
When, on Sergeev’s instructions, the new head of the criminal investigation department of Yekaterinburg, Pleshkov, sent a request to the head of the prison dated September 24, 1918, No. 2077, to bring DON guard A.N. Komendantov for interrogation, he received a delicate answer about sending him “to the location of the military authorities” - meaning execution in such certificates!
Through interrogation of Medvedev, Sergeev established: commandant Yurovsky, his assistant Nikulin, 2 members of the investigative commission and 7 so-called “Latvians” received Nagan system revolvers. Medvedev kept the twelfth similar revolver, although he had another revolver, but of the Mauser system.
The participants in the shooting did not have pistols. Meanwhile, according to experts, 22 shots were left by revolver bullets, and another 5 from Browning and Colt. The conclusion was supported by 4 recovered pistol bullets.
Sergeev examined Ipatiev’s house from August 12 to 14, and on August 18 and 20 he organized the removal of sections of the floor and wall cladding from the room with traces of bullets for examination. Sergeev categorically denied the involvement of the Soviet government in the murder of the Royal Family and said: “It’s even funny to think like that.”
In a statement to Herman Bernstein, a reporter for the New York Tribune, handing over a folder with documents, Sergeev confirmed: “It is my belief that The Empress, Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses were not executed in Ipatiev's house ».
The reason for replacing Sergeev was that he was the son of a baptized Jew, and Dieterichs wanted to remove him. Sergeev died shortly after the interview with the New York Tribune.
Court Counselor Alexander Fedorovich Kirsta joined the Tsar’s case at the same time as investigator Nametkin.
A.F. Kirsta was appointed head of the criminal investigation department after white troops occupied Yekaterinburg. Among other matters, Kirsta was supposed to provide investigative measures to search for evidence of murder in the Ipatiev House. Kirsta was an experienced lawyer and the circumstances that emerged during the investigation greatly alarmed him.
A thorough examination of Ganina Yama showed that only the burning of clothes of prisoners of the Don took place here. No traces of destruction or burial of the bodies were found. Kirsta compared the finds with a deliberately ostentatiously created atmosphere of something super important happening here (a two-day cordon), it is unknown why grenades exploded in mines, demonstrative trips to that area by the top officials of Soviet power. And he had the idea that a demonstration-simulation was arranged , which was covering up something that was actually happening, but not here.
When the troops of General Pepelyaev occupied Perm in December 1918, officials from Yekaterinburg were sent there to create a counterintelligence apparatus in the city. Among them was Kirsta, who was appointed to the position of assistant chief of military control of the 1st Central Siberian Corps and personally ordered by General Gaida to check rumors that the Royal Family was taken to Perm. Kirsta, according to Gaida’s order, should not have coordinated his actions with Sergeev, who was leading the investigation in Yekaterinburg.
The mother and wife of Rafail Malyshev, who guarded the Royal Family, interrogated by Kirsta on March 30, testified that Malyshev guarded the Empress and the Grand Duchesses, and when the Red troops left Perm, they were also taken out.
The achievement of military counterintelligence in the “Tsar’s Affair” was the arrest of the sister of the chairman of the Ural Cheka Fedor Lukoyanov, Vera Nikolaevna Lukoyanova-Karnaukhova. She gave very important information: “ The Tsar's family, together with the former Empress, were taken out of Yekaterinburg on the same train that carried the train with the jewelry. Among the carriages with jewelry there was a classy carriage in which the royal family was located. This train was stationed at Perm 2 and was guarded by a reinforced guard. Personally, I haven’t seen this train and I’m speaking from my brother’s words. My brother never told me a lie - I believed him in that. From Yekaterinburg, my brother came to Perm after the occupation of Yekaterinburg by Siberian troops. I don’t know where the royal family was sent next.».
Soon, by order from above, Military Control was prohibited from investigating the fate of the Royal Family and ordered to transfer all materials to Sokolov. Kirsta insisted that he be allowed to participate in the further investigation, and he was actively supported by fellow prosecutor of the Perm District Court D. Tikhomirov, but Admiral A.F. Kolchak relied on M.K. Diterikhs.
On September 8, 1918, the commandant’s duty officer, Warrant Officer Alekseev, asked Sergeev to occupy Ipatiev’s house for the commander of the Ural Front, Czech General Gaida, and his staff. Sergeev notified the Chairman of the District Court V. Kazim-Bek, the prosecutor of the court V. Iordansky and arrived with them at Ipatiev’s house. The commandant of the city, the Czech captain Blaga, strongly explained that military authorities were in charge here, and judicial officials had to transport evidence and draw up a protocol on this incident.
It is appropriate to recall the transport route of the Imperial couple from Tobolsk from the words of Nikolai Yakovlevich Sedov, captain captain of the Crimean regiment, during his interrogation by Sergeev on November 22, 1918: “ The train consisted of three troikas with machine guns and machine gunners, on the next troika rode the Sovereign with Commissar Yakovlev, followed by a troika with the Empress and V.K. Maria Nikolaevna, then a troika with Botkin and Prince Dolgorukov; at the end of the train there were troikas with attendants and then with Red Army soldiers. I met the train with the Emperor in the village of Dubrovno (50-60 versts from Tobolsk). The queen recognized me and made the sign of the cross over me!
Upon arrival in Tobolsk, I went to Fr. Alexey (Vasiliev) and had a conversation with his eldest son Dmitry, regarding the order given to me by B.N. Solovyov to give me 10,000 rubles from the amount of money that Vasiliev was supposed to bring from Petrograd to transfer to Solovyov. But I didn’t receive any money and left for Tyumen and, upon arriving there, conveyed the results of the trip to Solovyov. Soloviev also began to speak ill of Fr. Alexei and his sons, calling them “speculators” and claiming that he had evidence of their bad deeds.
The second time I arrived in Tobolsk at the end of September and stayed in the apartment of Professor Botkin’s children. I received information from reliable sources that Fr. Alexey (Vasiliev) boasted to his acquaintances that he had letters and documents related to the Emperor and of great importance; He also had, according to him, the Emperor’s own letters, which were handed over to me for sending as appropriate.
And what is among the documents from Fr. Alexey contains the act of abdication of the Sovereign from the throne, as well as 3 brownings, of which one with the monogram of the Sovereign, with this browning, according to Fr. Alexey, his son Alexander left for the district; Fr. himself showed me the little Browning. Alexey, he himself told me that he has the Tsar’s rifle. Father Alexey serves as rector of the Annunciation Church; in the left aisle he kept the Tsarevich's broadsword. This broadsword o. Alexey showed it to me and brought it out from the left aisle of the church.
The documents are partly kept in the wall of his house, partly in the attic of the house and in one of the church altars. According to Fr. Alexei, some of the things are kept by the former Tsar’s servant Kirpichnikov and Colonel Kobylinsky; I must say that Fr. Alexey (Vasiliev) is in an obviously hostile relationship with Colonel Kobylinsky!
It is known about Kobylinsky that he sold some of the Royal things from the palace after the departure of the Royal Family from Tobolsk and at the same time he acquired a lot of money.
From my conversation with Vasiliev, I got the impression that he intends to use the documents he stores for personal purposes. As an officer of the regiment, the chief of which was the Empress, I, in agreement with some other officers loyal to the Royal Family, set out to provide the imprisoned Emperor with all possible assistance.
I lived almost the entire last winter in Tyumen, where I met Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov, married to Rasputin’s daughter Matryona.
Soloviev, who once learned about my appearance in Tyumen, told me that he was the head of an organization that set the goal of its activities to protect the interests of the Royal Family imprisoned in Tobolsk. All those who sympathized with the tasks and goals of this organization had to come to him before starting to provide assistance to the Royal Family in one form or another.».
Contemporaries of the events were well aware of State Duma member Nikolai Evgenievich Markov, with extremely monarchical convictions. Staff captain N. Ya. Sedov was a trusted agent of N. E. Markov. B. Solovyov initially showed ostentatious activity in the February revolution, for some time he was even an adjutant to the chairman of the Military Commission of the State Duma Committee. However, already in the fall of 1917, at the request of the Empress, he married the daughter of St. Gregory Rasputin, Matryona.
Soloviev at the end of 1918, came to Tobolsk as a representative of A. A. Vyrubova. He delivered a large sum of money and a secret letter, thereby winning the Queen’s trust. Sergei Markov was an old acquaintance of Solovyov, and in Tyumen they tried to help the Royal Family. Matryona Solovyova called him “Seryozha” in her diary.
Having learned that Vyrubov was sending S.V. Markov to Tobolsk, N.E. Markov instructed him to find Sedov and notify the organization about the work done. S. Markov was in Tobolsk on March 10 and described his arrival: “By candlelight, after the journey, I untied my knot for the first time. All things were in perfect working order. I was especially pleased that the hyacinth that I received from A.A. Vyrubova and which I placed in a box of cigarettes hardly withered at all.
I made a small package and decided to give it, together with a flower and a portrait of the late A.S. Taneyev, as well as letters that I took from under the insoles of my shoes, to Fr. Vasiliev first of all.
Fr. Alexey had just returned from church and immediately received me. After the conditional phrase that was communicated to me by A. A. Vyrubova, Fr. Alexei realized that I really came from her and that he had nothing to fear from me. But still, he was somehow worried about my appearance, and from further conversation I understood what was going on.
The position of the Royal Family is worsening every day due to the fact that the Bolsheviks from the center are increasingly beginning to pay attention to Tobolsk. Since the beginning of this month, 800 rubles have been allocated for each member of the Imperial Family. per month, which, of course, is completely insufficient for more or less decent maintenance.
The nutrition gap is filled with voluntary help from the population and surrounding residents. The attitude of the residents of Tobolsk towards Their Majesties is overwhelmingly excellent, as are the surrounding peasants. The attitude of the guards changed for the worse due to the fact that most of them, after demobilization began, went home and were replenished with new soldiers who came from St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo.
Nevertheless, among the guards there are a large number of soldiers who are unconditionally loyal to Their Majesties, thanks to their long life together, and who, if anything happens, can be relied upon. The Bolshevik government still does not officially exist in the city. The Council of Workers' Deputies does not cause any particular difficulties for the Royal Family.
About Sedov from Fr. Vasiliev had no information. In his opinion, he did not come to Tobolsk, otherwise he would have known about this from Their Majesties, since he had free access to their house. Nothing was known about Markov 2nd's organization either, and he has no connection with it. B. N. Solovyov was in Tobolsk a week ago, brought linen and warm things for Their Majesties, after which he left for Pokrovskoye.
Their Majesties and Their Highnesses are in good health and with true Christian humility endure all the hardships of imprisonment. Personally, Fr. Vasiliev, was at one time arrested for proclaiming many years to Their Majesties, but was soon released and has since been under suspicion and surveillance. After this message I understood the reason for the excitement. Alexei upon my appearance.
In conclusion, he said that Their Majesties could not remain in this position for long. It is necessary to take decisive action, as he has already communicated to A. Vyrubova. It was necessary for a small number of faithful people to come to Tobolsk, but the main stop was for material resources, which were not available at all, and without funds, the whole enterprise became risky.
I assured Fr. Vasiliev, that there will be no stopping for loyal people, that more than the required number of officers will arrive in Tobolsk and the surrounding area for me, individually and in groups, in a very short time.
I asked about. Vasiliev to convey the package brought to Their Majesties along with my loyal feelings of ardent love and devotion, as well as the indispensable desire, at all costs, to remain close to Their Majesties.”
“At the end of our conversation, Fr.’s son entered the room. Vasiliev, with whom he introduced me. He made a very nice impression on me. I went out into the street, walked through several side streets, and found myself not far from the governor’s house.
In one of the leftmost windows of the second floor I noticed Grand Duchess Olga and Maria Nikolaevna. They were talking to each other. I stopped for a few seconds, but there was no one else to see, and I went home.
I spent the rest of the day and the entire evening writing a long letter to Her Majesty, in which I described what was happening in Russia, the death of our regiment in the Crimea with a list of killed fellow soldiers, about life with Yu. A. Den in Beletskovka, the latest news about A. Vyrubova, and also about his meeting with Count Keller. In addition, I begged Her Majesty to take courage and not to worry, They have not been forgotten and are not being forgotten, “tant Yvette,” by which name Her Majesty knew Markov II as the head of the organization, since the summer of 1917, has been working feverishly, everything things are getting better, and soon Their Majesties will see not only me in Tobolsk.
In the evening I could not stand it and went again to Fr. Vasiliev and gave his son a letter written by me to Her Majesty. When I returned home, the hours dragged on agonizingly long. The night was unbearable, and only when morning came did I feel stronger. With difficulty I waited for the end of the long Lenten service.
When almost the entire audience left the church, I saw Fr. Vasilyev, with a sign inviting me to enter the altar. When I entered and we said hello, he, with a trembling voice, in the warmest and most cordial terms, conveyed to me the deep gratitude of Their Majesties for my arrival and at the same time conveyed to me, on behalf of Her Majesty, a blessing in the form of an icon of St. John of Tobolsk on one side, and on the other - with the image of the Abalatskaya Mother of God, a prayer book with Her Majesty’s handwritten inscription:
Little M. receives a blessing from Sh., and a large mammoth bone mouthpiece as a gift from Their Majesties. Passing it on to me, Fr. Alexey added:
“Her Majesty didn’t know what to give you, but then, taking out a cigarette holder, she said: He probably smokes, so I’ll give it to him.” When he smokes, he will remember me more often.”
In addition, Fr. Vasiliev gave me another small cigarette holder of mammoth bone and a postcard of Her Majesty’s own work: at the top there is an angel painted in watercolor, and in the middle there is an inscription in Church Slavonic letters:
“Lord, send Your grace to help me, that I may glorify Your Holy Name,” with a request to transfer these things to A. Vyrubova.
Along with his things, he also gave me a letter from Her Majesty to me. I was so incredibly happy that I couldn’t even say a word of gratitude.
O. Vasiliev let me calm down and continued:
Her Majesty believes that it is not safe for you to remain in Tobolsk, because you can easily be identified by both Colonel Kobylinsky and his friend, Bitner. After all, they still know you from Tsarskoye Selo. Is not it?
I answered in the affirmative.
And therefore Her Majesty asks you to leave Tobolsk as soon as possible for Pokrovskoye to visit Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov and stay with him temporarily.
At that moment, the valet of Their Majesties the Wolves came to the church (it was a minister of the Bricks, as I later learned), who entered the altar and once again, with tears in his eyes, conveyed to me the gratitude of Their Majesties and Their Highnesses for the visit and for the gifts brought. He told me that the Empress cried when she learned about the misfortune that happened to Her regiment. Then he told me that Their Majesties definitely want to see me, at least from the windows, that this is why he was sent to the church to go ahead of me, since Their Majesties may not recognize me in civilian clothes.
Having said goodbye and received a blessing from Fr. Alexey and handing Kirpichnikov the package in which the remaining books I still had were wrapped, I followed him out of the church.”
“Even from a distance, I saw Their Majesties and Their Highnesses in the windows of the second floor located next to the balcony. The Emperor stood next to the balcony door, and the Heir sat next to him in the window on the windowsill. Behind him, with her arm around His waist, stood Her Majesty. Next to the Heir sat Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
Next to the Empress stood the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, and behind the Empress and Grand Duchess Mary stood, probably on something high, the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana.
Not twenty paces from the corner of the house, I stopped and, in order to bide my time, first took out the cigarette holder I had just received, then began looking in my pockets for a cigarette case and matches. Their Majesties and Their Highnesses immediately recognized me, and I noticed that they could hardly restrain themselves from laughing, how comical I was in my long civilian autumn coat and in my St. Petersburg meadowsweet hat.
When, after much effort, stalling for time, I attached my cigarette to the cigarette holder, and then raised my head and lit a cigarette, I saw Her Majesty barely nod her head at me, and the Heir, with visible curiosity, looked me up and down and said something. To the Empress.
Everything was bubbling inside me and nervous spasms squeezed my throat. It took me great effort not to show my excitement and to hold back the sobs that were about to break out.
After standing a little longer on the corner, I slowly, slowly walked along the façade. Their Majesties and Their Highnesses began to move from window to window.
Having reached the end of the house, I turned back, keeping my eyes on the windows all the time.
When I reached the corner again, a cab driver came towards me. I stopped him, got into the sled and drove past the house again. I ordered him to go to the end of the street where the sausage shop was located. Having made purchases at the store, I defiantly put a large package on my lap and ordered the cab driver to drive straight past the house to my hotel.
Their Majesties apparently understood my maneuver and, when I passed, They were still at the windows. But this was already just one moment. I managed to catch another slight nod of the Empress’s head, and the governor’s house disappeared around the bend from my eyes.
I was incredibly happy that I saw Their Majesties, that my cherished wish was fulfilled, that I kept the oath given to myself on that memorable night when They were transported from Tsarskoye Selo to these parts that I would get there, no matter what. , before Their new location, but at the same time I was deeply shocked by the helplessness of Them and my situation. I will never forget this day.
This was the day when I last saw Their Majesties, the People Whom I idolized and adore, Whom I served faithfully and for Whom, at any time, without hesitation, I am ready to give my life!
Two hours later, the ready-made troika, fulfilling the will of Her Majesty, took me to Pokrovskoye. On March 10, at 11:50 pm, I arrived in Tobolsk, and at 4:00 pm on March 12, I had to leave it.
I didn’t think then that I would no longer be destined to return to it.
“We are heartily touched by your arrival and very grateful for the gifts. A big cigarette holder for you, little Yu. A., a postcard from A. A. Thank you again for not forgetting us. God bless! Sincere greetings from Sh.”
For the hundredth time I reread these sacred lines received from the Empress, sitting in a sleigh that rushed me along a familiar road. This time I no longer paid attention to the beauties of nature flashing before my eyes. I was completely under the impression of what I had just experienced and only one thought persistently drilled into my brain: - What will happen next? I didn't find a clear answer. I could only believe that Solovyov, being more oriented than me in the current situation, should find some way out.”
Soloviev outlined to me the position of the Royal Family in the following form. Since October last year, when he first arrived in Tobolsk and handed over to Their Majesties the first things received from A. Vyrubova, Their position has changed greatly.”
“After the dismissal of Commissar Makarov, a man, despite his revolutionary experience, was very favorably disposed towards the Royal Family, and this happened due to the rashness and frivolity of M. S. Khitrovo, who was detained in Tobolsk.
Immediately after her arrival, a certain Pankratov, a former political exile, a man of little energy, was sent in his place, who immediately shy away from the “detachment committee,” which did not fail to squeeze all power over the Royal Prisoners into its clutches.
His assistant was Nikolsky, a typical ensign of revolutionary times, with the skills of a rally speaker, a boor in manners and origin. He had no involvement in the lives of prisoners, but spent time among the soldiers of the detachment, finding in them a society worthy of him. Boris Nikolaevich had an uncertain opinion about Kobylinsky.
It is difficult to imagine that a career guards officer could, thanks to his revolutionary convictions, occupy a position similar to the one he occupied. On the other hand, there was no data that would suggest that he took the position on behalf of one of the right-wing organizations.
In relation to Their Majesties, Kobylinsky behaved correctly and very restrained. Their Majesties' attitude towards him was distrustful and also reserved. Sufficient willpower was not noticeable in him and he did not have any special influence on the committee, not to mention even power over it. Bitner was received by Their Majesties, had access to the house and even gave lessons to the Grand Duchesses and the Heir.
She behaved in the same way as Kobylinsky, closed and vague. In any case, Boris Nikolaevich’s conviction was that if the moment of liberation of the Royal Family came, Kobylinsky would not create obstacles to this, but he himself would not do anything for this.
The detachment consisted of 150 people with machine guns and 8 officers, not counting Kobylinsky. The soldiers were recruited from the reserve battalion of the 1st, 2nd and 4th Infantry Regiments; These were all old soldiers who had been at the front, Knights of St. George. Among them, soldiers were immediately discovered who were quite loyal to Their Majesties, and looking at them, other soldiers, due to their long and close lives under Their Majesties, changed their harlot-revolutionary physiognomy.
Of the eight officers, two could be considered reliable. In a word, the situation for creating the escape of Their Majesties before the Bolshevik coup, if not brilliant, was, in any case, more or less favorable.
From the moment power passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, the situation changed sharply for the worse. Telegrams from St. Petersburg began to arrive in Tobolsk, with which the Soviet authorities began to correct the life of Their Majesties, and the “detachment” re-elected the chairman of the committee, whom they sent to St. Petersburg.
Ensign Matveev was elected, a semi-literate subject who returned from the “red capital”, filled with Bolshevik grace and already with the rank of ensign! According to his application, he was promoted to officer by Lenin himself. This did not make him any better, but on the contrary, he transferred the entire retinue to the governor’s house, where Their Majesties already lived in terrible crowded conditions, and, worst of all, limited the food of Their Majesties to the extreme.
The issue of nutrition in general has become very acute. Boris Nikolaevich to this day has transferred 50,000 rubles to Their Majesties in various ways, of which part was from his personal money and his wife’s money, and the other was transferred to him by A. Vyrubova. In addition, some Tobolsk merchants financially helped Their Majesties. The population was extremely responsive to the needs of Their Majesties and helped as best they could with food.
Bishop Hermogenes and the monasteries also came to the aid of the Prisoners as best they could, trying as much as possible to make life easier for the unfortunate Sufferers. Their Majesties were greatly harmed by the unexpected performance during the Christmas holidays in the Church of the Annunciation by Fr. Vasiliev."
“He was arrested, but was soon released, and no big trouble came out of it for him,” Boris Nikolaevich told me, but he certainly damaged Their Majesties in the same way as M. Khitrovo was damaged by his frivolity in August.
They were no longer allowed into church and were treated with suspicion. Matveev and the disbanded younger soldiers who came to replace the old soldiers who had left, began to see a hidden counter-revolution in this thoughtless action!
Despite the fact that the security of Their Majesties, thanks to the arrival of new soldiers, has undergone significant changes, Boris Nikolaevich told me that among them there will be 30 people who can be relied on and be sure that they will assist in the release of the Royal Family from imprisonment.
After familiarizing me with the current situation, Soloviev proceeded to outline a plan for the possible rescue of the Prisoners. According to all the data available to Solovyov, there was no concentration of people loyal to Their Majesties in the Tobolsk region. The most real assistance by sending the necessary things and facilitating uncontrolled communication with the outside world was provided to Their Majesties by A. Vyrubova. She maintained connections between Tobolsk and St. Petersburg both through Solovyov personally and through several other persons. Personally, Solovyov managed to do the following on the spot:
1) Firmly establish a secret connection with the Prisoners.
2) Form a group of faithful people in Tobolsk and in the region closest to it.
3) Along the entire line from Tobolsk to Tyumen, at a distance equal to the coachmen's hauls, establish a number of specific points with loyal and reliable people through whom correspondence and small items are sent from Tobolsk to Tyumen.
4) After much effort, it was possible to establish constant and reliable control over postal and telegraph messages of both the “detachment” and the Council of Deputies.
In addition, the Tyumen postal and telegraph station was under his supervision, so even the encrypted telegrams of the Tyumen Council were not a secret to him.
5) Finally, feasible financial assistance from Boris Nikolaevich.
Soloviev was amazed by my stories about the situation of the St. Petersburg organization headed by Markov II and its lack of money. When I told him that he demanded money from A. Vyrubova, openly telling her that the organization had no money.
He answered me reasonably: “I just can’t understand this. From your words it follows that the organization was born almost in May of last year, that is, almost a year, and during this period of time Markov II was unable to raise sufficient funds and could, according to you, send him to these places only one Sedov! What right did he have to accuse A. Vyrubova of doing nothing in this direction? I can certify that she did everything. What was in her power and capability!
To this I answered Boris Nikolaevich that I myself do not understand how Markov the 2nd could not provide the organization with money until this day, taking into account that he had summer and autumn at his disposal, until October, when the banks worked properly. The only thing that remains is to assume that his name is not popular in those circles that would like to financially help the Imperial Family.
Having not found funds to fulfill my cherished goal, a trip to these regions, in my organization, I found them from A. Vyrubova, for which I will be grateful to her until the end of my days. I came here and am ready to lay down my head for the benefit of Their Majesties. From a conversation with Boris Nikolaevich, I understood that he was counting heavily on the help of some Moscow circles, to contact whom Fr.’s son would go in the coming days. Vasiliev."
And here is Solovyov’s story about Tobolsk: “Early in the morning we were awakened by the ringing of bells, since it was Sunday, and, hastily putting ourselves in order, we went to mass in the cathedral, where Bishop Hermogenes, the evil enemy of my late father-in-law, was serving the Liturgy. Bishop Hermogenes knew me well from childhood and loved me very much.”
Sergey Zhelenkov, to be continued
Tsarevich Alexei also had a gun made by the Tula Imperial Factory, in a single copy, which was written in gold letters on the inlaid butt. In 2000, because of this gun, a collector in Nizhny Novgorod was killed by a former district police officer; after the police arrived, not only the gun, but also the case with diamonds disappeared! This collector, when he was the Presidential Administrator, had Pavel Pavlovich Borodin and offered, for a large sum, to buy this gun or transfer it to a museum, but was refused.
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