Place of death of the royal family. When was the royal family of the Romanovs executed? More details on the main kings of the Russian state

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

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

Many books have been written about the execution of the royal family of the Romanovs. To this day, discussions continue about whether the murder of the Romanovs was planned in advance and whether it was part of Lenin's plans. And in our time there are people who believe that at least the children of Nicholas II were able to escape from the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

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

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

While inspecting the mine, where the bodies of the royal family were dumped, he found several things that, for some reason, did not catch the eye of his predecessor: a miniature pin that the prince used as a fishing hook, gems, which were sewn up in the belts of the Grand Duchesses, and the skeleton of a tiny dog, probably the favorite of Princess Tatiana. If we recall the circumstances of the death of the royal family, it is difficult to imagine that the dog's corpse was also transported from place to place in order to hide ... Falcons did not find human remains, except for several fragments of bones and a severed finger of a middle-aged woman, presumably the empress.

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

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

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

In the early 1970s, British journalists Anthony Summers and Tom Menschld got acquainted with the official documents of the Sokolov investigation. And they found many inaccuracies and shortcomings in them, which cast doubt on this version. First, a coded telegram about the execution of the entire royal family, sent to Moscow on July 17, appeared in the case only in January 1919, after the first investigator was removed. Secondly, the bodies have not yet been found. And to judge the death of the empress by the only fragment of the body - the severed finger - was not entirely correct.

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

9 skeletons were recovered from the ground. 4 of them belonged to Nikolai's servants and their family doctor. Another 5 - to the king, his wife and children. It was not easy to establish the identity of the remains. First, the skulls were compared with surviving photographs of members of the imperial family. One of them was identified as the skull of the emperor. Was later held comparative analysis DNA prints. This required the blood of a person related to the deceased. The blood sample was provided by the British Prince Philip. His dear grandmother on the maternal side was the sister of the empress's grandmother.

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

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

2006 - performed another DNA analysis. This time, the samples of skeletons found in the Urals were compared with fragments of relics grand duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna. A series of studies was carried out by L. Zhivotovsky, Doctor of Science, an employee of the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His American colleagues helped him. The results of this analysis were completely unexpected: the DNA of Elizabeth and the alleged empress did not match. The first thought that came to the mind of the researchers was that the relics stored in the cathedral, in fact, did not belong to Elizabeth, but to someone else. However, this version had to be ruled out: Elizabeth's body was discovered in a mine near Alapaevsk in the fall of 1918, she was identified by people who were closely acquainted with her, including the confessor of the Grand Duchess Father Seraphim.

This priest subsequently accompanied the coffin with the body of his spiritual daughter to Jerusalem and would not allow any substitution. This meant that, as a last resort, one body no longer belonged to members of the Romanov family. Later, doubts arose about the identity of the remaining remains. On the skull, which was previously identified as the skull of the emperor, there was no callus, which could not disappear even after so many years after death. This mark appeared on the skull of Nicholas II after an attempt on his life in Japan. In the Yurovsky protocol it was said that the tsar was killed with a shot at point-blank range, while the executioner shot in the head. Even taking into account the imperfection of the weapon, at least one bullet hole must have remained in the skull. However, it lacks both inlets and outlets.

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

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

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

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

Aviation engineer Pyotr Duz in the fall of 1941 was sent to Sverdlovsk. One of his duties in the rear was the publication of textbooks and manuals for supplying the country's military universities. Getting acquainted with the property of the publishing house, Duz ended up in the Ipatiev House, in which several nuns and two elderly women archivists lived at that time. While examining the premises, Douz, accompanied by one of the women, went down to the basement and noticed strange grooves on the ceiling, which ended in deep recesses ...

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

She also talked about the last days of the life of the Romanovs, which, according to her, were unbearable. The security officers who guarded the prisoners behaved incredibly rudely. All the windows in the house were boarded up. The Chekists explained that these measures were taken for security reasons, but the interlocutor Duzya was convinced that this was one of a thousand ways to humiliate the "ex." It should be noted that the Chekists had reasons for concern. According to the recollections of the archivist, every morning (!) The Ipatiev House was besieged by local residents and monks, who tried to convey notes to the tsar and his relatives, offered to help with chores around the house.

Of course, this does not justify the behavior of the Chekists, but any intelligence officer entrusted with the protection of an important person is simply obliged to limit his contacts with the outside world. But the behavior of the guards was not limited only to "excluding" sympathizers from the members of the Romanov family. Many of their antics were downright outrageous. They took particular pleasure in shocking Nikolai's daughters. They wrote obscene words on the fence and the outhouse in the courtyard, tried to watch the girls in the dark corridors. Nobody has mentioned such details yet. Therefore, Duz listened attentively to the story of the interlocutor. She also reported a lot about the last minutes of the life of the imperial family.

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

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

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

Subsequently, experts from the Main State Center for Forensic Medical and Forensic Examinations of the Russian Ministry of Defense reconstructed the picture of the execution to the nearest minute and to the millimeter. With the help of a computer, relying on the testimony of Grigory Nikulin and Anatoly Yakimov, they established where and at what moment the executioners and their victims were. Computer reconstruction showed that the Empress and the Grand Duchesses tried to protect Nicholas from bullets.

Ballistic examination established many details: from which weapon the members of the imperial family were eliminated, how many shots were fired approximately. The security officers needed to pull the trigger at least 30 times ...

Every year the chances of discovering the real remains of the royal Romanov family (if the Yekaterinburg skeletons are recognized as a fake) are fading. This means that the hope of ever finding an exact answer to the questions is melting: who died in the basement of the Ipatiev House, did any of the Romanovs manage to escape, and what was the further fate of the heirs to the Russian throne ...

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, the heir to Tsarevich Alexei, and also the Life -Medic Evgeny Botkin, valet Aleksey Trupp, room girl Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov.

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

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

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

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

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

© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg

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

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

Here is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I invited everyone to stand up. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai had his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies Urala decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: “Shoot.” I fired the first and killed Nikolai on the spot. wooden wall will not ricochet, the bullets bounced off her. For a long time I could not stop this shooting, which took on a disorderly character. But when I finally managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Dr. Botkin was lying with his elbow on right hand, as if in the pose of a resting man, finished him off with a revolver shot. Alexey, Tatiana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was still alive. Comrade Ermakov wanted to finish the case with a bayonet. But, however, this did not succeed. The reason was found out later (the daughters were wearing diamond shells like bras). I had to shoot everyone in turn. "

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

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

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

In October 2008, the presidium The Supreme Court RF made a decision on rehabilitation Russian emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the great dukes and princes of blood, who were executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. The servants and close associates of the royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks or were subjected to repressions, were rehabilitated.

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

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

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

On October 27, 2011, there was a decision to terminate the investigation into the shooting of the royal family. The 800-page resolution contains the main findings of the investigation and indicates the authenticity of the discovered remains of the royal family.

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

The church canonized Nicholas II and his family and on July 17 marks the day of remembrance of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.

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

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

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

Maria Pozdnyakova,« AiF»: It is known that the Bolsheviks were going to conduct a trial over Nicholas II, but then they abandoned this idea. Why?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Did the royal family have a chance of salvation?

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

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

- Yes. Even the children understood that death was impending. Alexey once said: "If they kill, then at least they would not torture." As if he had a presentiment that death at the hands of the Bolsheviks would be painful. But even in the revelations of the murderers, not the whole truth is told. No wonder the regicide Voikov said: "The world will never know what we have done with them."

In 1894, replacing his father Alexander III, Nicholas II ascended the Russian throne. He was destined to become the last emperor not only in the great Romanov dynasty, but also in the history of Russia. In 1917, at the suggestion of the Provisional Government, Nicholas II abdicated the throne. He was exiled to Yekaterinburg, where in 1918 he was shot with his family.

mystery death of the royal Romanov family

The Bolsheviks feared that enemy troops might enter Yekaterinburg from day to day: the Red Army clearly did not have enough strength to resist. In this regard, it was decided to shoot the Romanovs without waiting for their trial. On July 16, the people appointed for the execution of the sentence came to the Ipatiev house, where the royal family was under the strictest supervision. Towards midnight, everyone was transferred to the room designated for the execution of the sentence, which was located on the ground floor. There, after the announcement of the decree of the Ural Regional Council, Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children: Olga (22 years old), Tatyana (20 years old), Maria (18 years old), Anastasia (16 years old), Alexei (14 years old), as well as doctor Botkin, cook Kharitonov, another cook (his name is unknown), Trupp's footman and room girl Anna Demidova were shot.

That same night, the corpses were carried in blankets to the courtyard of the house and laid in truck, who left the city on the road leading to the village of Koptyaki. About eight versts from Yekaterinburg, the car turned left onto a forest path and drove to abandoned mines in an area called Ganina Yama. The corpses were thrown into one of the mines, and the next day they were removed and destroyed ...

The circumstances of the execution of Nicholas II and his family in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, as well as the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich in Perm on June 10 and a group of other members of the Romanov family in Alapaevsk on July 18 of the same year were investigated back in 1919-1921. N. A. Sokolov. He took over the investigation from the investigative group of General MK Dieterichs, led it up to the retreat of Kolchak's troops from the Urals, and subsequently published a complete selection of case materials in the book Murder of the Tsar's Family (Berlin, 1925). One and the same factual material was illuminated from different angles: interpretations abroad and in the USSR were sharply different. The Bolsheviks did their best to hide information regarding the execution and the exact burial site of the remains. At first, they persistently adhered to the false version that everything was in order with Alexandra Fedorovna and her children. Even at the end of 1922, Chicherin declared that the daughters of Nicholas II were in America and that they were completely safe. The monarchists clung to this lie, which became one of the reasons why there is still debate about whether any of the members of the royal family managed to avoid a tragic fate.

For almost twenty years, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A. N. Avdo-din has been investigating the death of the royal family. In 1979, together with the writer-screenwriter Geliy Ryabov, having established the place of the alleged concealment of the remains, he dug out part of them on the Koptyakovskaya road.

In 1998, in an interview with the correspondent of the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, Geliy Ryabov said: “In 1976, when I was in Sverdlovsk, I came to Ipatiev’s house, walked around the garden among old trees. I have a rich imagination: I saw them walking here, heard them talking - it was all imagination, a mystery, but nevertheless it was a strong impression. Then I was introduced to local ethnographer Alexander Avdodin ... I tracked down Yurovsky's son - he gave me a copy of his father's note (who personally shot at Nicholas II with a revolver - Ed.). On it we established the burial place, from which we got three skulls. One skull remained with Avdodin, and I took two with me. In Moscow, he turned to one of the senior officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with whom he had once started the service, and asked him to conduct an examination. He didn't help me because he was a staunch communist. For a year, the skulls were kept at my home ... The next year we gathered again in the Pig's Log and put everything back in place. " During the interview, G. Ryabov noted that some of the events that took place in those days cannot be called anything other than mysticism: “The next morning after we unearthed the remains, I came there again. I went to the excavation site - believe it or not - the grass grew by ten centimeters overnight. Nothing is visible, all traces are hidden. Then I drove these skulls in a service "Volga" to Nizhny Tagil. The mushroom rain has started. Suddenly a man appeared in front of the car out of nothing. Driver -
steep steering wheel to the left, the car skidded down a slope. Turned over many times, fell on the roof, flew out all the glass. The driver has a small scratch, I have nothing at all ... During another trip to Porosenkov Log I saw a series of foggy figures at the edge of the forest ... "
The story of the discovery of the remains on the Koptyakovskaya road received a public response. In 1991, for the first time in Russia, an attempt was made officially to reveal the secret of the death of the Romanov family. For this purpose, a government commission was created. During her work, the press, along with the publication of reliable data, covered a lot with a biased view, without any analysis, sinning against the truth. There were debates around who, in fact, belonged to the exhumed bone remains, which had been lying for many decades under the flooring of the old Koptyakovskaya road? Who are these people? What caused their death?
The results of the research of Russian and American scientists were heard and discussed on July 27-28, 1992 in the city of Yekaterinburg at the international scientific-practical conference "The last page of the history of the royal family: the results of the study of the Yekaterinburg tragedy." The coordinating council organized and conducted this conference. The conference was of a closed nature: only historians, physicians and criminologists, who had previously worked independently of each other, were invited to it. Thus, the adjustment of the results of some studies to others was excluded. The conclusions reached by the scientists of the two countries independently of each other turned out to be practically the same and, with a high degree of probability, indicated that the discovered remains belonged to the royal family and its entourage. According to expert V.O. Plaksin, the results of the studies of Russian and American scientists coincided on eight skeletons (out of nine found), and only one turned out to be controversial.
After numerous studies both in Russia and abroad, after laborious work with archival documents, the government commission concluded: the discovered bone remains really belong to members of the Romanov family. Nevertheless, the controversy around this topic does not subside. Some researchers still strongly refute the official conclusion of the government commission. They claim that "Yurovsky's note" is a fake fabricated in the bowels of the NKVD.
On this occasion, one of the members of the government commission, the famous historian Edward Stanislavovich Radzinsky, giving an interview to the correspondent of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, expressed his opinion: “So, there is a certain note by Yurovsky. Let's say we don't know what it is about. We only know that it exists and that it says about some corpses, which the author declares to be the corpses of the royal family. The note indicates the place where the corpses are ... The burial, which is mentioned in the note, is opened, and there are found as many corpses as indicated in the note - nine. What follows from this? .. ”E. S. Radzinsky believes that this is not just a coincidence. In addition, he pointed out that DNA analysis -99, 99999 ...% probability British scientists, for a year studying fragments of bone remains by molecular-genetic methods at the forensic center of the British Ministry of the Interior in Aldermaston, came to the conclusion, that the bone remains found near Yekaterinburg belong precisely to the family of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.
Until today, there are reports in the press from time to time about people who consider themselves descendants of members of the royal house. So, some researchers have suggested that in 1918 one of the daughters of Nicholas II, Anastasia, passed away. Her heirs immediately began to appear. For example, the Red Ufa resident Afanasy Fomin belongs to them. He claims that in 1932, when his family lived in Salekhard, two soldiers came to them and began to interrogate all family members in turn. Children were brutally tortured. Mother could not resist and admitted that she was Princess Anastasia. She was dragged out into the street, blindfolded and hacked to death with sabers. The boy was sent to an orphanage. Athanasius himself learned about his belonging to the royal family from a woman named Fenya. She said she served Anastasia. In addition, Fomin told the local newspaper unknown facts from the life of the royal family and presented his photographs.
It was also suggested that people loyal to the tsar helped Alexandra Fedorovna to cross the border (to Germany), and she lived there for more than one year.
According to another version, Tsarevich Alexei survived. He has eight dozen “descendants”. But only one of them asked for an identification examination and trial. This person is Oleg Vasilievich Filatov. He was born in the Tyumen region in 1953. He currently lives in St. Petersburg, serves in a bank.
Among those who became interested in OV Filatov was the correspondent of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Tatyana Maksimova. She visited Filatov, met his family. She was struck by the amazing similarity of the eldest daughter of Oleg Vasilyevich Anastasia with grand duchess Olga, the sister of Nicholas II. And the face of the youngest daughter of Yaroslavna, says T. Maksimova, strikingly resembles Tsarevich Alexei. O.V. Filatov himself says that the facts and documents at his disposal suggest that Tsarevich Alexei lived under the name of his father Vasily Ksenofontovich Filatov. But, according to Oleg Vasilyevich, the final conclusion must be made by the court.
... His father met his future wife at the age of 48. They were both village school teachers. The Filatovs first had a son, Oleg, then a daughter - Olga, Irina, Nadezhda.
For the first time, eight-year-old Oleg heard about Tsarevich Alexei from his father while fishing. Vasily Ksenofontovich told a story that began with the fact that Alexei woke up at night on a pile of dead bodies in a truck. It was raining and the car stalled. People got out of the cab and, swearing, began to drag the dead to the ground. Someone's hand thrust a revolver into Alexei's pocket. When it became clear that the car could not be pulled out without a tug, the soldiers went to the city for help. The boy crawled under the railway bridge. By railroad he reached the station. There, among the carriages, the fugitive was detained by a patrol. Alexey tried to run away, fired back. All this was seen by a woman who worked as a switchman. The patrolmen caught Alexey and drove him with bayonets to the forest. The woman ran after them screaming, then the patrolmen began to shoot at her. Fortunately, the switchwoman managed to hide behind the carriages. In the forest, Alexei was pushed into the first pit that came across, and then a grenade was thrown. A manhole in a pit saved him from death, where the boy managed to slip. However, a shrapnel hit the left heel.
The boy was pulled out by the same woman. She was helped by two men. They took Alexei by railcar to the station, called a surgeon. The doctor wanted to amputate the boy's foot, but he failed. From Yekaterinburg, Alexei was transported to Shadrinsk. There he was lodged with the shoemaker Filatov, laid on the stove with the owner's son, who was in a fever. Of the two, Alexei survived. He was given the name and surname of the deceased.
In a conversation with Filatov, T. Maksimova said: "Oleg Vasilyevich, but the Tsarevich suffered from hemophilia - I can't believe that the wounds from bayonets and grenade fragments left him a chance to survive." To this Filatov replied: “I only know that the boy Alexei, as his father said, after Shadrin-ska was treated for a long time in the north near the Khanty-Mansi with decoctions of reindeer needles and moss reindeer moss, forced to eat raw venison, seal meat, bear meat, fish, and as if bull's eyes. " In addition, Oleg Vasilyevich also noted that hematogen and Cahors were never transferred at home. All his life, my father drank an infusion of bovine blood, took vitamins E and C, calcium gluconate, glycerophosphate. He was always afraid of bruises and cuts. He avoided contacts with official medicine, and he treated his teeth only at private dentists.
about the words of Oleg Vasilyevich, the children began to analyze the strangeness of their father's biography when they had already matured. So, he often transported his family from one place to another: from the Orenburg region to the Vologda region, and from there to the Stavropol region. At the same time, the family always settled in a remote rural area. The children wondered: where did the Soviet geography teacher get deep religiosity, knowledge of prayers? A foreign languages? He knew German, French, Greek and Latin. When the children asked how their father knew languages, he replied that he had learned it at the workers' school. My father also played keyboards and sang beautifully. He also taught his children to read and write. When Oleg entered the vocal class of Nikolai Okhotnikov, the teacher did not believe that the young man was taught at home - the basics were taught so skillfully. Oleg Vasilievich said that his father taught musical notation digital method. After the death of his father, in 1988, Filatov Jr. learned that this method was the property of the imperial family and was inherited.
In a conversation with a journalist, Oleg Vasilyevich told about another coincidence. From his father's stories, the surname of the Strekotin brothers, "Uncle Andrei" and "Uncle Sasha", engraved in his memory. It was they, together with the switchwoman, who took the wounded boy out of the pit, and then took him to Shadrinsk. In the State Archives, Oleg Vasilyevich found out that the Red Army brothers Andrei and Alexander Strekotin really served in the protection of the Ipatiev house.
In the Scientific Research Center of Law at St. Petersburg State University, the portraits of Tsarevich Alexei, aged from one and a half to 14 years old, and Vasily Filatov were combined. A total of 42 photographs were examined. The studies carried out with a high degree of reliability allow us to believe that these photographs of a teenager and a man depict the same person at different age periods of his life.
Graphologists analyzed six letters from 1916-1918, 5 pages of Tsarevich Alexei's diary and 13 notes by Vasily Filatov. The conclusion was as follows: with full confidence we can say that the studied records were made by the same person.
Doctoral student of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Military Medical Academy Andrei Kovalev compared the results of the study of the Yekaterinburg remains with the structural features of the spines of Oleg Filatov and his sisters. According to the expert, Filatov's blood relationship with members of the House of Romanov is not excluded.
For a final conclusion, more research is needed, in particular DNA. In addition, it will be necessary to exhume the body of Oleg Vasilyevich's father. OV Filatov believes that this procedure must necessarily go through the forensic examination. And this requires a court decision and ... money.

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

Nice Nicky

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

Nikolai Alexandrovich sufficiently heeded her requirements, having mastered the lessons of education excellently. The future emperor was always distinguished by tact, modesty and good breeding. He was surrounded by love from relatives. They called him "Nice Nicky".

Military career

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

At the age of 16, the Tsarevich took the oath "of loyalty to the Fatherland and the Throne." Served in. He was promoted to colonel. This rank was the last in his military career, since, as emperor, Nicholas II believed that he had "no quietest and no quietest right" to independently assign military ranks.

Accession to the throne

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

Emperor's coronation

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

Tragedy on the Khodynskoye field

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

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

Nicholas II's mistake

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

A family

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

Just during the Russo-Japanese War, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, was born in the family of the emperor. This is the first boy, before that Nicholas had four girls! In honor of this, a volley of 300 guns was fired. But soon doctors determined that the boy was sick with an incurable disease - hemophilia (incoagulability of blood). In other words, the Tsarevich could bleed out even from a cut on his finger and die.

"Bloody Sunday" and the First World War

After the infamous defeat in the war, unrest and protests began to arise throughout the country. The people demanded the overthrow of the monarchy. Discontent with Nicholas II was growing with each passing hour. On Sunday afternoon, January 9, 1905, crowds of people came to demand that their complaints about the terrible and hard life... At this time, the emperor and his family were not in the Winter Palace. They rested in Tsarskoe Selo. The troops stationed in St. Petersburg, without an order from the emperor, opened fire on the civilian population. Everyone perished: women, old people and children ... Together with them, the people's faith in their king was forever killed! On that "bloody Sunday" 130 people were shot and several hundred were wounded.

The emperor was very shaken by the tragedy that had happened. Now nothing and no one could calm the public discontent with the entire royal family. Unrest and rallies began throughout Russia. In addition, Russia entered the First World War, which Germany declared to her. The fact is that in 1914 hostilities began between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, and Russia decided to defend the small Slavic state, for which it was called "to a duel" by Germany. The country was simply fading away before our eyes, everything flew into tar-tarars. Nicholas did not yet know that the price for all this would be the execution of the royal family of the Romanovs!

Abdication

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

October of the year and the execution of the Romanov family

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

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

The shooting (no photo for obvious reasons) was carried out at night. Nicholas and his family were lifted out of bed, saying that they were being transported to another place. A Bolshevik named Yurovsky quickly said that White army wants to free the former emperor, so the Soviet of Soldiers and Workers' Deputies decided to immediately shoot the entire royal family in order to end the Romanovs once and for all. Nicholas II did not have time to understand anything, as indiscriminate shooting at him and his family immediately rang out. This is how the earthly journey of the last Russian emperor and his family ended.