Who made the decision to execute the royal family. Alternative versions of the tragedy. Mistake of Nicholas II

Hundreds of books have been published about the tragedy of the family of Tsar Nicholas II in many languages ​​of the world. These studies quite objectively present the events of July 1918 in Russia. Some of these writings I had to read, analyze and compare. However, there are many mysteries, inaccuracies, and even deliberate untruths.

Among the most reliable information are the protocols of interrogations and other documents of the Kolchak court investigator for especially important cases N.A. Sokolov. In July 1918, after the capture of Yekaterinburg by the White troops, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Siberia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak appointed N.A. Sokolov as the leader in the case of the execution of the royal family in this city.

ON THE. Sokolov

Sokolov worked for two years in Yekaterinburg, interrogated a large number of people involved in these events, tried to find the remains of the executed members of the royal family. After the capture of Yekaterinburg by the Red troops, Sokolov left Russia and in 1925 published the book "The Murder of the Imperial Family" in Berlin. He took all four copies of his materials with him.

The Central Party Archives of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where I worked as a leader, kept mostly original (first) copies of these materials (about a thousand pages). How they got into our archive is unknown. I have read all of them carefully.

For the first time, a detailed study of materials related to the circumstances of the execution of the royal family was carried out on the instructions of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1964.

In a detailed reference “on some circumstances related to the execution of the Romanov royal family” dated December 16, 1964 (CPA of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, fund 588 inventory 3C), all these problems are documented and objectively considered.

The certificate was written then by the head of the sector of the ideological department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev, an outstanding political figure in Russia. Not being able to publish the entire reference mentioned above, I cite only some passages from it.

“In the archives, no official reports or resolutions have been found that precede the execution of the Romanov royal family. There is no indisputable data about the participants in the execution. In this regard, the materials published in the Soviet and foreign press, and some documents of the Soviet party and state archives were studied and compared. In addition, the stories of the former assistant commandant of the House of Special Purpose in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was kept, G.P. Nikulin and a former member of the collegium of the Ural Regional Cheka I.I. Radzinsky. These are the only surviving comrades who had something to do with the execution of the Romanov royal family. Based on the available documents and memoirs, often contradictory, one can draw up such a picture of the execution itself and the circumstances associated with this event. As you know, Nicholas II and members of his family were shot on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg. Documentary sources testify that Nicholas II and his family were executed by decision of the Ural Regional Council. In the protocol No. 1 of the meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of July 18, 1918, we read: “We heard: The message about the execution of Nikolai Romanov (telegram from Yekaterinburg). Decided: After discussion, the following resolution is adopted: The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee recognizes the decision of the Ural Regional Council as correct. Instruct tt. Sverdlov, Sosnovsky and Avanesov to draw up an appropriate notice for the press. Publish about the documents available in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - (diary, letters, etc.) of the former Tsar N. Romanov and instruct Comrade Sverdlov to form a special commission to analyze these papers and publish them. The original, stored in the Central State Archives, signed by Ya.M. Sverdlov. As V.P. Milyutin (People's Commissar for Agriculture of the RSFSR), on the same day, July 18, 1918, a regular meeting of the Council of People's Commissars was held in the Kremlin late in the evening ( Council of People's Commissars.— Ed. ) chaired by V.I. Lenin. “During the report of Comrade Semashko, Ya.M. entered the meeting room. Sverdlov. He sat down on a chair behind Vladimir Ilyich. Semashko finished his report. Sverdlov went up, leaned over to Ilyich and said something. “Comrades, Sverdlov is asking for the floor for a message,” Lenin announced. “I must say,” Sverdlov began in his usual even tone, “a message has been received that in Yekaterinburg, by order of the regional Soviet, Nikolai was shot. Nicholas wanted to run. The Czechoslovaks advanced. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee decided: to approve. Silence of all. "Now let's move on to reading the project article by article," suggested Vladimir Ilyich. (Magazine "Projector", 1924, p. 10). This is a message from Ya.M. Sverdlov was recorded in the protocol No. 159 of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars dated July 18, 1918: “We heard: An extraordinary statement by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, Comrade Sverdlov, on the execution of the former Tsar, Nicholas II, by the verdict of the Yekaterinburg Soviet of Deputies and on the approval of this verdict by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee. Resolved: Take note. The original of this protocol, signed by V.I. Lenin, is stored in the party archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. A few months before that, at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the issue of transferring the Romanov family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg was discussed. Ya.M. Sverdlov speaks about this on May 9, 1918: “I must tell you that the question of the position of the former tsar was raised by us in the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee back in November, at the beginning of December (1917) and has been repeatedly raised since then, but we have not accepted no decision, taking into account the fact that it is necessary to first accurately familiarize yourself with how, under what conditions, how reliable protection is, how, in a word, the former Tsar Nikolai Romanov is kept. At the same meeting, Sverdlov reported to the members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee that at the very beginning of April, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee heard the report of the representative of the committee of the team guarding the tsar. “Based on this report, we came to the conclusion that it was impossible to leave Nikolai Romanov in Tobolsk ... The Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the former Tsar Nikolai to a more reliable point. The center of the Urals, the city of Yekaterinburg, was chosen as such a more reliable point. The fact that the issue of transferring the family of Nicholas II was resolved with the participation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee is also said in their memoirs by the old communists from the Urals. Radzinsky said that the initiative for the transfer belonged to the Ural Regional Council, and "the Center did not object" (Tape recording of May 15, 1964). P.N. Bykov, a former member of the Ural Council, in his book The Last Days of the Romanovs, published in 1926 in Sverdlovsk, writes that in early March 1918, the regional military commissar I. Goloshchekin (party nickname "Philip"). He was given permission to transfer the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.

Further, in the certificate “On some circumstances related to the execution of the Romanov royal family,” the terrible details of the cruel execution of the royal family are given. It talks about how the corpses were destroyed. It is said that about half a pood of diamonds and jewelry were found in the sewn corsets and belts of the dead. In this article I would not like to discuss such inhuman acts.

For many years, the world press has been circulating the assertion that “the true course of events and the refutation of the “falsifications of Soviet historians” are contained in Trotsky’s diary entries, which were not intended for publication, therefore, they say, especially frank. They were prepared for publication and published by Yu.G. Felshtinsky in the collection: “Leo Trotsky. Diaries and Letters (Hermitage, USA, 1986).

I am quoting an excerpt from this book.

“April 9 (1935) The White Press once very heatedly debated the question of whose decision the royal family was put to death. The liberals were inclined, as it were, to the fact that the Urals executive committee, cut off from Moscow, acted independently. This is not true. The decision was made in Moscow. It happened during the critical period of the civil war, when I spent almost all my time at the front, and my recollections of the royal family's affair are fragmentary.

In other documents, Trotsky recounts a meeting of the Politburo a few weeks before the fall of Yekaterinburg, at which he advocated the need for an open trial "which was supposed to unfold the picture of the entire reign."

“Lenin responded in the sense that it would be very good if it were feasible. But there may not be enough time. There was no debate, because (as) I did not insist on my proposal, absorbed in other things.

In the next episode from the diaries, the most frequently quoted, Trotsky recalls how, after the execution, to his question about who decided the fate of the Romanovs, Sverdlov replied: “We decided here. Ilyich believed that it was impossible to leave us a living banner for them, especially in the current difficult conditions.

“They decided” and “Ilyich considered” can, and according to other sources, should be interpreted as the adoption of a general decision in principle that the Romanovs should not be left as a “living banner of the counter-revolution”.

And is it so important that the immediate decision to execute the Romanov family was issued by the Ural Council?

Here is another interesting document. This is a telegraphic request dated July 16, 1918 from Copenhagen, in which it was written: “To Lenin, a member of the government. From Copenhagen. A rumor spread here that the former tsar had been murdered. Please tell me the facts by phone." On the telegram, Lenin wrote in his own hand: “Copenhagen. The rumor is false, the former tsar is healthy, all rumors are lies of the capitalist press. Lenin.

We were not able to find out whether a reply telegram was then sent. But it was the very eve of that tragic day when the tsar and his relatives were shot.

Ivan Kitaev- especially for "New"

reference

Ivan Kitaev is a historian, candidate of historical sciences, vice-president of the International Academy of Corporate Governance. He went from a carpenter on the construction of the Semipalatinsk test site and the Abakan-Taishet road, from a military builder who built a uranium enrichment plant in the taiga wilderness, to an academician. He graduated from two institutes, the Academy of Social Sciences, postgraduate studies. He worked as a secretary of the Togliatti city committee, the Kuibyshev regional committee, director of the Central Party Archive, deputy director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. After 1991, he worked as the head of the head office and head of the department of the Ministry of Industry of Russia, taught at the academy.

Lenin is characterized by the highest measure

About the organizers and customer of the murder of the family of Nikolai Romanov

In his diaries, Trotsky does not limit himself to quoting the words of Sverdlov and Lenin, but also expresses his own opinion about the execution of the royal family:

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

As for the extreme measure characteristic of Ilyich, Lev Davidovich, of course, is archipraved. So Lenin, as you know, personally demanded that as many priests as possible be hanged, as soon as he received a signal that the masses in some places in the localities had shown such an initiative. How can the people's power not support the initiative from below (and in reality the basest instincts of the crowd)!

As for the trial of the tsar, to which, according to Trotsky, Ilyich agreed, but time was running out, this trial would obviously have ended with the sentence of Nicholas to the highest measure. But in this case, unnecessary difficulties could arise with the royal family. And then how nice it turned out: the Ural Council decided - and that's it, bribes are smooth, all power to the Soviets! Well, maybe only "in the intellectual circles of the party" there was some shock, but quickly passed, like with Trotsky himself. In his diaries, he cites a fragment of a conversation with Sverdlov after the Yekaterinburg execution:

“Yes, but where is the king? - It's over, - he answered, - shot. - Where is the family? And his family is with him. - All? I asked, apparently with a hint of surprise. - All! Sverdlov replied. - And what? He was waiting for my reaction. I didn't answer. - And who decided? “We decided here…”

Some historians emphasize that Sverdlov did not answer “decided”, but “decided”, which is supposedly important for identifying the main culprits. But at the same time they take Sverdlov's words out of the context of the conversation with Trotsky. And here, after all, how: what is the question, such is the answer: Trotsky asks who decided, and here Sverdlov answers, “We decided here.” And further on he speaks even more specifically - about what Ilyich considered: "we must not leave us a living banner for them."

So, in his resolution on the Danish telegram of July 16, Lenin was clearly disingenuous, speaking about the lies of the capitalist press regarding the "health" of the tsar.

In modern terms, we can say this: if the Ural Soviet was the organizer of the murder of the royal family, then Lenin was the customer. But in Russia, the organizers are rare, and the customers of the crimes almost never, alas, do not find themselves in the dock.

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 it became fatal for the Romanov family. That night, Nicholas II, who abdicated the throne, the former Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their children - 14-year-old Alexei, Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia, were killed. The fate of the sovereign was shared by the doctor E. S. Botkin, the maid A. Demidova, the cook Kharitonov and the footman. However, from time to time, witnesses are discovered who, after many years of silence, report new details of the execution of the royal family.

Many books have been written about the death of the Romanovs. There are still discussions about whether the murder of the Romanovs was a pre-planned operation and whether it was part of Lenin's plans. Until now, there are people who believe that at least the children of the emperor managed to escape from the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. The accusation of the murder of the emperor and his family was an excellent trump card against the Bolsheviks, gave grounds to accuse them of inhumanity. Is this why most of the documents and testimonies that tell about the last days of the Romanovs appeared and continue to appear precisely in Western countries? But some researchers suggest that the crime that Bolshevik Russia was accused of was not committed at all ...

From the very beginning, there were many mysteries in the investigation into the circumstances of the murder of the Romanovs. In relatively hot pursuit, two investigators were engaged in it. The first investigation began a week after the alleged execution. The investigator came to the conclusion that Nikolai was indeed executed on the night of July 16-17, but the former queen, her son and four daughters were saved.

In early 1919, a new investigation was carried out. It was headed by Nikolai Sokolov. Did he find indisputable evidence that the entire family of Nicholas 11 was killed in Yekaterinburg? It's hard to say... When examining the mine where the bodies of the royal family were dumped, he discovered several things that for some reason did not fall into the eyes of his predecessor: a miniature pin that the prince used as a fishing hook, precious stones that were sewn into the belts of the Grand Duchesses, and the skeleton of a tiny dog, obviously the favorite of Princess Tatyana. If we recall the circumstances of the death of the Romanovs, it is difficult to imagine that the corpse of a dog was also transported from place to place, trying to hide ... Sokolov did not find human remains, except for several fragments of bones and a severed finger of a middle-aged woman, presumably the empress.

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

The first argument of the supporters of the revision of the version of the death of the entire royal family was the announcement of the Bolsheviks on the execution of the former emperor, 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 moment to exchange Alexandra Fedorovna for political prisoners held captive in Germany. There were rumors about negotiations on this topic. Shortly after the death of the emperor, Sir Charles Eliot, the British consul in Siberia, visited Yekaterinburg. He met with the first investigator in the Romanov case, after which he informed his superiors that, in his opinion, the former tsarina and her children left Yekaterinburg by train on 17 July.

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

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

In 1988, it would seem that there was irrefutable evidence of the death of Nikolai, his wife and children. The former investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, screenwriter Geliy Ryabov, received a secret report from his son Yakov Yurovsky (one of the main participants in the execution). It contained detailed information about where the remains of members of the imperial family were hidden. Ryabov began to search. He managed to find greenish-black bones with traces of burns left by acid. In 1988, he published an account of his find.

In July 1991, professional Russian archaeologists arrived at the site where the remains, presumably belonging to the royal family, were discovered. 9 skeletons were taken out of the ground. Four of them belonged to Nikolai's servants and their family doctor. Five more - to the emperor, his wife and children. Establishing the identity of the remains was not easy. Initially, the skulls were compared with surviving photographs of members of the Romanov family. One of them was identified as the skull of Nicholas II. Later, a comparative analysis of DNA fingerprints was carried out. This required the blood of a person who was related to the deceased. The blood sample was provided by Britain's Prince Philip.

His maternal grandmother was the sister of the Empress's grandmother. The results of the analysis showed a complete match of DNA in four skeletons, which gave grounds to officially recognize the remains of Alexandra and her three daughters in them. The bodies of the Tsarevich and Anastasia were not found. On this occasion, two hypotheses were put forward: either two descendants of the Romanov family still managed to stay alive, or their bodies were burned. It seems that Sokolov was right after all, and his report turned out to be not a provocation, but real coverage of facts ... In 1998, the remains of the royal family were transferred with honors to St. Petersburg and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. True, there were immediately skeptics who were convinced that the remains of completely different people were in the cathedral.

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

This priest subsequently accompanied the coffin with the body of his spiritual daughter to Jerusalem and would not allow any substitution. This meant that at least one body did not belong to members of the royal family. Later, doubts arose about the identity of the rest of the remains. On the skull, which was previously identified as the skull of Nicholas II, there was no callus, which could not disappear even after so many years after death. This mark appeared on the skull of the emperor after the assassination attempt on him in Japan.

Yurovsky's protocol stated that the emperor was shot at point-blank range, and the executioner shot him in the head. Even if we take into account the imperfection of the weapon, at least one bullet hole must have remained in the skull. But it lacks both inlet and outlet holes.

It is possible that the 1993 reports were fake. Need to find the remains of the royal family? Please, here they are. Conduct an examination to prove their authenticity? Here are the test results! In the 90s of the last century, there were all conditions for myth-making. No wonder the Russian Orthodox Church was so cautious, not wanting to recognize the bones found and rank Nicholas and his family among the martyrs ...
Again, talk began that the Romanovs were not killed, but hidden in order to be used in some political game in the future. Could the emperor live in the USSR under a false name with his family?

On the one hand, this possibility cannot be ruled out. The country is huge, there are many corners in it in which no one would recognize Nicholas. The royal family could also be settled in some kind of shelter, where they would be completely isolated from contacts with the outside world, and therefore not dangerous. On the other hand, even if the remains found near Yekaterinburg are the result of falsification, this does not mean at all that there was no execution. They knew how to destroy the bodies of dead enemies and scatter their ashes in ancient times. To burn a human body, you need 300-400 kilograms of wood - in India, thousands of the dead are buried every day using the burning method. So would the killers, who had an unlimited supply of firewood and a fair amount of acid, not be able to hide all traces?

Most recently, in the fall of 2010, during work in the vicinity of the Old Koptyakovskaya road in the Sverdlovsk region, places were discovered where the killers hid jugs of acid. If there was no execution, where did they come from in the Ural wilderness?
Attempts to restore the events that preceded the execution were carried out repeatedly. As you know, after the abdication, the imperial family was settled in the Alexander Palace, in August they were transferred to Tobolsk, and later to Yekaterinburg, to the infamous Ipatiev House.
Aviation engineer Pyotr Duz was sent to Sverdlovsk in the fall of 1941. One of his duties in the rear was the publication of textbooks and manuals to supply the country's military universities.

Getting acquainted with the property of the publishing house, Duz ended up in the Ipatiev House, which at that time was inhabited by several nuns and two elderly female archivists. While inspecting the premises, Duz, accompanied by one of the women, went down to the basement and drew attention to the strange furrows on the ceiling, which ended in deep depressions ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ballistic examination established many details: from which weapons the members of the royal family were liquidated, how many shots were approximately fired. It took Chekists at least 30 times to pull the trigger...
Every year, the chances of discovering the real remains of the Romanov family (if the Yekaterinburg skeletons are recognized as fake) are fading. This means that hope is melting someday to find an exact answer to the questions: who died in the basement of the Ipatiev House, did any of the Romanovs manage to escape, and what was the fate of the heirs to the Russian throne...

V. M. Sklyarenko, I. A. Rudycheva, V. V. Syadro. 50 famous mysteries of the history of the XX century

From renunciation to execution: the life of the Romanovs in exile through the eyes of the last empress

On March 2, 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne. Russia was left without a king. And the Romanovs ceased to be a royal family.

Perhaps this was Nikolai Alexandrovich's dream - to live as if he were not an emperor, but simply the father of a large family. Many said that he had a gentle character. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was his opposite: she was seen as a sharp and domineering woman. He was the head of the country, but she was the head of the family.

She was prudent and stingy, but humble and very pious. She knew how to do a lot: she was engaged in needlework, painted, and during the First World War she looked after the wounded - and taught her daughters how to dress. The simplicity of the royal upbringing can be judged by the letters of the Grand Duchesses to their father: they easily wrote to him about the "idiotic photographer", "nasty handwriting" or that "the stomach wants to eat, it is already cracking." Tatyana in letters to Nikolai signed "Your faithful Ascensionist", Olga - "Your faithful Elisavetgradets", and Anastasia did this: "Your daughter Nastasya, who loves you. Shvybzik. ANRPZSG Artichokes, etc."

A German who grew up in the UK, Alexandra wrote mostly in English, but she spoke Russian well, albeit with an accent. She loved Russia - just like her husband. Anna Vyrubova, Alexandra's maid of honor and close friend, wrote that Nikolai was ready to ask his enemies for one thing: not to expel him from the country and let him live with his family "the simplest peasant." Perhaps the imperial family would really be able to live by their work. But the Romanovs were not allowed to live a private life. Nicholas from the king turned into a prisoner.

"The thought that we are all together pleases and comforts..."Arrest in Tsarskoye Selo

"The sun blesses, prays, holds on to her faith and for the sake of her martyr. She does not interfere in anything (...). Now she is only a mother with sick children ..." - the former Empress Alexandra Feodorovna wrote to her husband on March 3, 1917.

Nicholas II, who signed the abdication, was at Headquarters in Mogilev, and his family was in Tsarskoye Selo. The children fell ill one by one with the measles. At the beginning of each diary entry, Alexandra indicated what the weather was like today and what temperature each of the children had. She was very pedantic: she numbered all her letters of that time so that they would not get lost. The wife's son was called baby, and each other - Alix and Nicky. Their correspondence is more like the communication of young lovers than a husband and wife who have already lived together for more than 20 years.

“At first glance, I realized that Alexandra Feodorovna, a smart and attractive woman, although now broken and irritated, had an iron will,” wrote Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government.

On March 7, the Provisional Government decided to place the former imperial family under arrest. The attendants and servants who were in the palace could decide for themselves whether to leave or stay.

"You can't go there, Colonel"

On March 9, Nicholas arrived in Tsarskoye Selo, where he was first greeted not as an emperor. “The duty officer shouted: “Open the gates to the former tsar.” (…) When the sovereign passed the officers gathered in the vestibule, no one greeted him. The sovereign did it first.

According to the memoirs of witnesses and the diaries of Nicholas himself, it seems that he did not suffer from the loss of the throne. “Despite the conditions in which we now find ourselves, the thought that we are all together is comforting and encouraging,” he wrote on March 10. Anna Vyrubova (she stayed with the royal family, but was soon arrested and taken away) recalled that he was not even offended by the attitude of the guards, who were often rude and could say to the former Supreme Commander: “You can’t go there, Mr. Colonel, come back when you they say!"

A vegetable garden was set up in Tsarskoye Selo. Everyone worked: the royal family, close associates and servants of the palace. Even a few soldiers of the guard helped

On March 27, the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, forbade Nikolai and Alexandra to sleep together: the spouses were allowed to see each other only at the table and speak to each other exclusively in Russian. Kerensky did not trust the former empress.

In those days, an investigation was underway into the actions of the couple's inner circle, it was planned to interrogate the spouses, and the minister was sure that she would put pressure on Nikolai. "People like Alexandra Feodorovna never forget anything and never forgive anything," he later wrote.

Alexei's mentor Pierre Gilliard (he was called Zhilik in the family) recalled that Alexandra was furious. "To do this to the sovereign, to do this disgusting thing to him after he sacrificed himself and abdicated in order to avoid a civil war - how low, how petty!" she said. But in her diary there is only one discreet entry about this: "N<иколаю>and I'm only allowed to meet at mealtimes, not to sleep together."

The measure did not last long. On April 12, she wrote: "Tea in the evening in my room, and now we sleep together again."

There were other restrictions - domestic. The guards reduced the heating of the palace, after which one of the ladies of the court fell ill with pneumonia. The prisoners were allowed to walk, but passers-by looked at them through the fence - like animals in a cage. Humiliation did not leave them at home either. As Count Pavel Benkendorf said, "when the Grand Duchesses or the Empress approached the windows, the guards allowed themselves to behave indecently in front of their eyes, thus causing the laughter of their comrades."

The family tried to be happy with what they have. At the end of April, a garden was laid out in the park - the turf was dragged by the imperial children, and servants, and even guard soldiers. Chopped wood. We read a lot. They gave lessons to the thirteen-year-old Alexei: due to the lack of teachers, Nikolai personally taught him history and geography, and Alexander taught the Law of God. We rode bicycles and scooters, swam in a pond in a kayak. In July, Kerensky warned Nikolai that, due to the unsettled situation in the capital, the family would soon be moved south. But instead of the Crimea they were exiled to Siberia. In August 1917, the Romanovs left for Tobolsk. Some of the close ones followed them.

"Now it's their turn." Link in Tobolsk

“We settled far from everyone: we live quietly, we read about all the horrors, but we won’t talk about it,” Alexandra wrote to Anna Vyrubova from Tobolsk. The family was settled in the former governor's house.

Despite everything, the royal family remembered life in Tobolsk as "quiet and calm"

In correspondence, the family was not limited, but all messages were viewed. Alexandra corresponded a lot with Anna Vyrubova, who was either released or arrested again. They sent parcels to each other: the former maid of honor once sent "a wonderful blue blouse and delicious marshmallow", and also her perfume. Alexandra answered with a shawl, which she also perfumed - with vervain. She tried to help her friend: "I send pasta, sausages, coffee - although fasting is now. I always pull greens out of the soup so that I don’t eat the broth, and I don’t smoke." She hardly complained, except for the cold.

In Tobolsk exile, the family managed to maintain the old way of life in many ways. Even Christmas was celebrated. There were candles and a Christmas tree - Alexandra wrote that the trees in Siberia are of a different, unusual variety, and "it smells strongly of orange and tangerine, and resin flows all the time along the trunk." And the servants were presented with woolen vests, which the former empress knitted herself.

In the evenings, Nikolai read aloud, Alexandra embroidered, and her daughters sometimes played the piano. Alexandra Feodorovna's diary entries of that time are everyday: "I drew. I consulted with an optometrist about new glasses", "I sat and knitted on the balcony all afternoon, 20 ° in the sun, in a thin blouse and a silk jacket."

Life occupied the spouses more than politics. Only the Treaty of Brest really shook them both. "A humiliating world. (...) Being under the yoke of the Germans is worse than the Tatar yoke," Alexandra wrote. In her letters, she thought about Russia, but not about politics, but about people.

Nikolai loved to do physical labor: cut firewood, work in the garden, clean the ice. After moving to Yekaterinburg, all this turned out to be banned.

In early February, we learned about the transition to a new style of chronology. "Today is February 14. There will be no end to misunderstandings and confusion!" - wrote Nikolai. Alexandra called this style "Bolshevik" in her diary.

On February 27, according to the new style, the authorities announced that "the people do not have the means to support the royal family." The Romanovs were now provided with an apartment, heating, lighting and soldiers' rations. Each person could also receive 600 rubles a month from personal funds. Ten servants had to be fired. "It will be necessary to part with the servants, whose devotion will lead them to poverty," wrote Gilliard, who remained with the family. Butter, cream and coffee disappeared from the tables of the prisoners, there was not enough sugar. The family began to feed the locals.

Food card. “Before the October Revolution, everything was plentiful, although they lived modestly,” recalled the valet Alexei Volkov. “Dinner consisted of only two courses, but sweet things happened only on holidays.”

This life in Tobolsk, which the Romanovs later recalled as quiet and calm - even despite the rubella that the children had had - ended in the spring of 1918: they decided to move the family to Yekaterinburg. In May, the Romanovs were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House - it was called a "house of special purpose." Here the family spent the last 78 days of their lives.

Last days.In "house of special purpose"

Together with the Romanovs, their close associates and servants arrived in Yekaterinburg. Someone was shot almost immediately, someone was arrested and killed a few months later. Someone survived and was subsequently able to tell about what happened in the Ipatiev House. Only four remained to live with the royal family: Dr. Botkin, footman Trupp, maid Nyuta Demidova and cook Leonid Sednev. He will be the only one of the prisoners who will escape execution: on the day before the murder he will be taken away.

Telegram from the Chairman of the Ural Regional Council to Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov, April 30, 1918

“The house is good, clean,” Nikolai wrote in his diary. “We were assigned four large rooms: a corner bedroom, a bathroom, a dining room next to it with windows overlooking the garden and overlooking the low-lying part of the city, and, finally, a spacious hall with an arch without doors.” The commandant was Alexander Avdeev - as they said about him, "a real Bolshevik" (later Yakov Yurovsky would replace him). The instructions for protecting the family said: "The commandant must keep in mind that Nikolai Romanov and his family are Soviet prisoners, therefore, an appropriate regime is being established in the place of his detention."

The instruction ordered the commandant to be polite. But during the first search, a reticule was snatched from Alexandra's hands, which she did not want to show. “Until now, I have dealt with honest and decent people,” Nikolai remarked. But I received an answer: "Please do not forget that you are under investigation and arrest." The tsar's entourage was required to call family members by their first and patronymic names instead of "Your Majesty" or "Your Highness". Alexandra was truly pissed off.

The arrested got up at nine, drank tea at ten. The rooms were then checked. Breakfast - at one, lunch - about four or five, at seven - tea, at nine - dinner, at eleven they went to bed. Avdeev claimed that two hours of walking were supposed to be a day. But Nikolai wrote in his diary that only an hour was allowed to walk a day. To the question "why?" the former king was answered: "To make it look like a prison regime."

All prisoners were forbidden any physical labor. Nicholas asked permission to clean the garden - refusal. For a family that spent the past few months only chopping firewood and cultivating beds, this was not easy. At first, the prisoners could not even boil their own water. Only in May, Nikolai wrote in his diary: "They bought us a samovar, at least we will not depend on the guard."

After some time, the painter painted over all the windows with lime so that the inhabitants of the house could not look at the street. With windows in general it was not easy: they were not allowed to open. Although the family would hardly be able to escape with such protection. And it was hot in summer.

House of Ipatiev. “A fence was built around the outer walls of the house facing the street, quite high, covering the windows of the house,” wrote its first commandant Alexander Avdeev about the house.

Only towards the end of July one of the windows was finally opened. "Such joy, finally, delicious air and one window pane, no longer smeared with whitewash," Nikolai wrote in his diary. After that, the prisoners were forbidden to sit on the windowsills.

There were not enough beds, the sisters slept on the floor. They all dined together, and not only with the servants, but also with the Red Army soldiers. They were rude: they could put a spoon into a bowl of soup and say: "You still get nothing to eat."

Vermicelli, potatoes, beet salad and compote - such food was on the table of the prisoners. Meat was a problem. “They brought meat for six days, but so little that it was only enough for soup,” “Kharitonov cooked a macaroni pie ... because they didn’t bring meat at all,” Alexandra notes in her diary.

Hall and living room in the Ipatva House. This house was built in the late 1880s and later bought by engineer Nikolai Ipatiev. In 1918, the Bolsheviks requisitioned it. After the execution of the family, the keys were returned to the owner, but he decided not to return there, and later emigrated

"I took a sitz bath as hot water could only be brought in from our kitchen," Alexandra writes of minor domestic inconveniences. Her notes show how gradually for the former empress, who once ruled over "a sixth part of the earth", everyday trifles become important: "great pleasure, a cup of coffee", "good nuns now send milk and eggs for Alexei and us, and cream ".

Products were really allowed to be taken from the women's Novo-Tikhvinsky monastery. With the help of these parcels, the Bolsheviks staged a provocation: they handed over in the cork of one of the bottles a letter from a "Russian officer" with an offer to help them escape. The family replied: "We do not want and cannot RUN. We can only be kidnapped by force." The Romanovs spent several nights dressed, waiting for a possible rescue.

Like a prisoner

Soon the commandant changed in the house. They became Yakov Yurovsky. At first, the family even liked him, but very soon the harassment became more and more. "You need to get used to living not like a king, but how you have to live: like a prisoner," he said, limiting the amount of meat that came to prisoners.

Of the monastery transfers, he allowed to leave only milk. Alexandra once wrote that the commandant "had breakfast and ate cheese; he won't let us eat cream anymore." Yurovsky also forbade frequent baths, saying that they did not have enough water. He confiscated jewelry from family members, leaving only a watch for Alexei (at the request of Nikolai, who said that the boy would be bored without them) and a gold bracelet for Alexandra - she wore it for 20 years, and it was possible to remove it only with tools.

Every morning at 10:00 the commandant checked whether everything was in place. Most of all, the former empress did not like this.

Telegram from the Kolomna Committee of the Bolsheviks of Petrograd to the Council of People's Commissars demanding the execution of representatives of the Romanov dynasty. March 4, 1918

Alexandra, it seems, was the hardest in the family to experience the loss of the throne. Yurovsky recalled that if she went for a walk, she would certainly dress up and always put on a hat. "It must be said that she, unlike the rest, with all her exits, tried to maintain all her importance and the former," he wrote.

The rest of the family was simpler - the sisters dressed rather casually, Nikolai walked in patched boots (although, according to Yurovsky, he had enough whole ones). His wife cut his hair. Even the needlework that Alexandra was engaged in was the work of an aristocrat: she embroidered and wove lace. The daughters washed handkerchiefs, darned stockings and bed linen together with the maid Nyuta Demidova.

Yekaterinburg. At the place of execution of the royal family. Holy Quarter June 16th, 2016

Immediately behind you can not miss this high temple and a number of other temple buildings. This is the Holy Quarter. By the will of fate, three streets bearing the names of revolutionaries are limited. Let's go to him.

On the way - a monument to the Holy Blessed Peter and Fevronia of Murom. Installed in 2012.

The Church-on-the-Blood was built in 2000-2003. on the spot where on the night of July 16 to July 17, 1918, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot. At the entrance to the temple, their photographs.

In 1917, after the February Revolution and abdication, the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were exiled to Tobolsk by decision of the Provisional Government.

After the Bolsheviks came to power and the start of the civil war, in April 1918, permission was received from the Presidium (All-Russian Central Executive Committee) of the fourth convocation to transfer the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg in order to deliver them to Moscow from there in order to conduct a trial of them.

In Yekaterinburg, a large stone mansion, confiscated from the engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, was chosen as the place of imprisonment for Nicholas II and his family. On the night of July 17, 1918, in the basement of this house, Emperor Nicholas II, along with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, children and close associates, were shot, and after that their bodies were taken to the abandoned Ganina Yama mine.

September 22, 1977 on the recommendation of the chairman of the KGB Yu.V. Andropov and the instructions of B.N. Yeltsin's Ipatiev house was destroyed. Later, Yeltsin would write in his memoirs: "...sooner or later we will all be ashamed of this barbarity. We will be ashamed, but we won't be able to fix anything...".

When designing, the plan of the future temple was superimposed on the plan of the demolished Ipatiev house in such a way as to create an analogue of the room where the Tsar's family was shot. At the lower level of the temple, a symbolic place for this execution was envisaged. In fact, the place of execution of the royal family is outside the temple in the area of ​​​​the carriageway of Karl Liebknecht Street.

The temple is a five-domed structure with a height of 60 meters and a total area of ​​3000 m². The architecture of the building is designed in the Russian-Byzantine style. The vast majority of churches were built in this style during the reign of Nicholas II.

The cross in the center is part of the monument to the royal family descending into the basement before being shot.

Adjacent to the Church-on-the-Blood is the Church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the spiritual and educational center "Patriarchal Compound" and the museum of the royal family.

Behind them you can see the Church of the Ascension of the Lord (1782-1818).

And in front of him is the Kharitonov-Rastorguev estate of the early 19th century (architect Malakhov), which became the Palace of Pioneers in the Soviet years. Now - the City Palace of Creativity for Children and Youth "Giftedness and Technology".

What else is in the vicinity. This is the Gazprom Tower, which has been under construction since 1976 as the Tourist Hotel.

The former office of the now defunct airline Transaero.

Between them - buildings of the middle of the last century.

Residential house-monument of 1935. Built for railroad workers. Very beautiful! Athletes' Street, on which the building is located, has been gradually built up since the 1960s, as a result, by 2010 it was completely lost. This residential building is the only building listed on a virtually non-existent street, the house has number 30.

Well, now we are going to the Gazprom tower - an interesting street begins from there.

Over the past decades, this event has been described in great detail, which, however, does not prevent the cultivation of old and the birth of new myths.

Let's analyze the most famous of them.

Myth one. The family of Nicholas II, or at least some of its members, escaped execution

The remains of five members of the imperial family (as well as their servants) were found in July 1991 near Yekaterinburg, under the embankment of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. Numerous examinations have shown that among the dead there are all family members, with the exception of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria.

The latter circumstance gave rise to various speculations, but in 2007 the remains of Alexei and Maria were found during new searches.

Thus, it became clear that all the stories about the “surviving Romanovs” were fake.

Myth two. “The execution of the royal family is a crime that has no analogues”

The authors of the myth do not pay attention to the fact that the events in Yekaterinburg took place against the background of the Civil War, which was characterized by extreme cruelty on both sides. The "Red Terror" is spoken about very often today, in contrast to the "White Terror".

But here's what he wrote general Graves, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia: “Great murders were committed in Eastern Siberia, but they were not committed by the Bolsheviks, as was usually thought. I will not be mistaken if for every person killed by the Bolsheviks, there were a hundred killed by anti-Bolshevik elements.

From memories the headquarters of the captain of the dragoon squadron of the corps Kappel Frolov: “The villages of Zharovka and Kargalinsk were carved into walnut, where for sympathy with Bolshevism they had to shoot all the peasants from 18 to 55 years old, after which they let the “cock” go.

April 4, 1918, that is, even before the execution of the royal family, the Cossacks of the village of Nezhinskaya, led by military foreman Lukin and Colonel Korchakov made a night raid on the Orenburg city council, located in the former cadet school. The Cossacks cut down the sleeping people, who did not have time to get up from the bed, who did not offer resistance. 129 people were killed. Among the dead were six children and several women. The children's corpses were cut in half, the murdered women lay with their breasts cut out and their bellies torn open.

There are a great many examples of inhuman cruelty on both sides. Both the children from the royal family and those who were hacked to death by the Cossacks in Orenburg are victims of a fratricidal conflict.

Myth three. "The execution of the royal family was carried out by order of Lenin"

For almost a hundred years, historians have been trying to find confirmation that the execution order came to Yekaterinburg from Moscow. But convincing facts in favor of this version have not been found for a century.

Senior investigator for particularly important cases of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation Vladimir Solovyov, who during the 1990s and 2000s was involved in the case of the execution of the royal family, came to the conclusion that the execution of the Romanovs was carried out by order of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council workers', peasants' and soldiers' deputies without the sanction of the Bolshevik government in Moscow.

“No, this is not the Kremlin's initiative. Lenin he himself became, in a certain sense, a hostage to the radicalism and obsession of the leaders of the Ural Council. I think that in the Urals they understood that the execution of the royal family could give the Germans a reason to continue the war, for new seizures and indemnities. But go for it!” - Soloviev expressed this opinion in an interview.

Myth four. The Romanov family was shot by Jews and Latvians

According to information available today, the firing squad consisted of 8-10 people, including: Ya. M. Yurovsky, G. P. Nikulin, M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin), P. S. Medvedev, P. Z. Ermakov, S. P. Vaganov, A. G. Kabanov, V. N. Netrebin. There is only one Jew among them: Yakov Yurovsky. Also, a Latvian could take part in the execution Jan Celms. The rest of the participants in the execution were Russians.

For the revolutionaries, speaking from the positions of internationalism, this circumstance did not matter, they did not divide each other along national lines. Subsequent stories about the "Jewish-Masonic conspiracy", which appeared in the emigre press, were built on a deliberate distortion of the lists of participants in the execution.

Myth five. “Lenin kept the severed head of Nicholas II on his desktop”

One of the strangest myths was launched almost immediately after the death of the Romanovs, but continues to live to this day.

Here, for example, is the material of the Trud newspaper for 2013 with the characteristic headline “The emperor’s head stood in Lenin’s office”: “According to some noteworthy information, the heads Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna really were in the Kremlin office of Lenin. Among the ten questions sent at one time from the patriarchate to the state commission dealing with the case of the remains found in the Urals, there was also an item concerning these heads. However, the answer received turned out to be written in the most general terms, and a copy of the documented inventory of the situation in Lenin's office was not sent.

But here is what the already mentioned investigator Vladimir Solovyov said in October 2015: “Another question arose: there are old legends that after the execution the head of the sovereign was brought to the Kremlin, to Lenin. This "tale" is still in the book of a prominent monarchist Lieutenant General Mikhail Diterikhs, the organizer of the excavations at the site of the alleged burial of the royal family in Ganina Yama, which were carried out by investigator Nikolai Sokolov. Dieterikhs wrote: “There are anecdotes that supposedly they brought the head of the king and will put it in cinematographs.” All this sounded like black humor, but it was picked up, there was talk of a ritual murder. Already in our time there were publications in the media that supposedly this head was discovered. We checked this information, but could not find the author of the note. The information is completely “yellow” and indecent, but nevertheless, these rumors have been circulating for many years, especially among the emigrant environment abroad. Opinions were also expressed that once the burial was opened by representatives of the Soviet special services and brought something there. That is why the patriarch proposed to conduct research again to confirm or debunk these legends... For this, small fragments of the skulls of the emperor and empress were taken.”

And here is what the Russian criminologist and forensic doctor, doctor of medical sciences, professor Vyacheslav Popov, who was directly involved in the examination of the remains of the royal family: “Now I will touch on the next point regarding the version Hieromonk Iliodor about severed heads. I can firmly state, hand on heart, that the head of the remains of No. 4 (it is assumed that this is Nicholas II) was not separated. We found the entire cervical spine in remains no. 4. All seven cervical vertebrae show no trace of any sharp object with which to separate the head from the neck. It’s impossible to cut off the head just like that, because you need to somehow cut the ligaments and intervertebral cartilages with a sharp object. But no such traces were found. In addition, we once again returned to the burial scheme drawn up in 1991, according to which remains No. 4 lie in the southwestern corner of the burial. The head is located at the edge of the burial, and all seven vertebrae are visible. Therefore, the version of severed heads does not hold water.”

Myth six. “The murder of the royal family was ritual”

Part of this myth is the statements we have previously analyzed about some "Jewish murderers" and severed heads.

But there is also a myth about a ritual inscription in the basement of a house. Ipatiev, which was mentioned again recently State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya: “Mr. Uchitel, is there an inscription in your film that was discovered in the basement of the Ipatiev House a hundred years ago, just in time for the anniversary of which you prepared the premiere of the mocking film “Matilda”? Let me remind you of the content: “Here, by order of the dark forces, the Tsar was sacrificed for the destruction of Russia. All nations are made aware of this."

So what's wrong with this inscription?

Immediately after the occupation of Yekaterinburg by the Whites, an investigation was launched into the alleged murder of the Romanov family. In particular, the basement of the Ipatiev house was also examined.

General Dieterichs wrote about it this way: “The appearance of the walls of this room was ugly and disgusting. Someone’s dirty and depraved natures with illiterate and rude hands dotted the wallpaper with cynical, obscene, meaningless inscriptions and drawings, hooligan rhymes, swear words, and especially, apparently, the names of the creators of Khitrov’s painting and literature, apparently relish signed.

Well, as we know, in terms of hooligan graffiti, the situation in Russia has not changed even after 100 years.

But what kind of records did the investigators find on the walls? Here is the data from the case file:

"Long live the world revolution. Down with International Imperialism and capital and to hell with the whole monarchy"

“Nikola, he’s not Romanov, but a Chukhonian by birth. The family of the Romanovs’ house ended with Peter III, then all the Chukhon breed went”

There were inscriptions and frankly obscene content.

Ipatiev House (Museum of the Revolution), 1930