There was no execution of the Royal Family! Nicholas II was not shot and met with Stalin.

First, the Provisional Government agrees to fulfill all conditions. But already on March 8, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseev informs the tsar that he "may consider himself, as it were, under arrest." After some time, from London, which had previously agreed to accept the Romanov family, a notification of refusal comes. On March 21, former Emperor Nicholas II and his entire family were officially taken into custody.

A little more than a year later, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family Russian Empire will be shot in a cramped basement in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were subjected to hardships, getting closer and closer to their gloomy finale. Let's look at rare photos of members of Russia's last royal family, taken some time before the execution.

After February Revolution 1917 last royal family Russia, by decision of the Provisional Government, was sent to the Siberian city of Tobolsk to protect it from the wrath of the people. A few months earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated, bringing to an end more than three hundred years of the Romanov dynasty.

The Romanovs began their five-day journey to Siberia in August, on the eve of Tsarevich Alexei's 13th birthday. The seven members of the family were joined by 46 servants and a military escort. The day before reaching their destination, the Romanovs sailed past Rasputin's home village, whose eccentric influence on politics may have contributed to their gloomy end.

The family arrived in Tobolsk on August 19 and began living in relative comfort on the banks of the Irtysh River. In the Governor's Palace, where they were placed, the Romanovs were well fed, and they could communicate a lot with each other, without being distracted by state affairs and official events. The children put on plays for their parents, and the family often went to the city for religious services - this was the only form of freedom allowed to them.

When the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of 1917, the regime of the royal family slowly but surely began to tighten. The Romanovs were forbidden to visit the church and generally leave the territory of the mansion. Soon coffee, sugar, butter and cream, and the soldiers assigned to protect them wrote obscene and offensive words on the walls and fences of their homes.

Things went from bad to worse. In April 1918, a commissar, a certain Yakovlev, arrived with an order to transport the former tsar from Tobolsk. The empress was adamant in her desire to accompany her husband, but Comrade Yakovlev had other orders that complicated everything. At this time, Tsarevich Alexei, suffering from hemophilia, began to suffer from paralysis of both legs due to a bruise, and everyone expected that he would be left in Tobolsk, and the family would be divided during the war.

The commissar's demands for the move were adamant, so Nikolai, his wife Alexandra and one of their daughters, Maria, soon left Tobolsk. They eventually boarded a train to travel via Yekaterinburg to Moscow, where the headquarters of the Red Army was located. However, Commissar Yakovlev was arrested for trying to save the royal family, and the Romanovs got off the train in Yekaterinburg, in the heart of the territory captured by the Bolsheviks.

In Yekaterinburg, the rest of the children joined their parents - they were all locked in the Ipatiev house. The family was placed on the second floor and completely cut off from outside world boarding up the windows and posting guards at the doors. The Romanovs were allowed to go out Fresh air just five minutes a day.

In early July 1918, the Soviet authorities began to prepare for the execution of the royal family. Ordinary soldiers on guard were replaced by representatives of the Cheka, and the Romanovs were allowed to go to worship for the last time. The priest who conducted the service later admitted that none of the family spoke a word during the service. For July 16 - the day of the murder - five truckloads of barrels of benzidine and acid were ordered to quickly dispose of the bodies.

Early in the morning of July 17, the Romanovs were gathered and told about the advance of the White Army. The family believed that they were simply being transferred to a small lighted basement for their own protection, because soon it would not be safe here. Approaching the place of execution, the last tsar of Russia passed by trucks, one of which will soon contain his body, not even suspecting what a terrible fate awaits his wife and children.

In the basement, Nikolai was told that he was about to be executed. Not believing his own ears, he asked again: "What?" - immediately after which the Chekist Yakov Yurovsky shot the tsar. Another 11 people pulled their triggers, flooding the basement with the blood of the Romanovs. Aleksey survived after the first shot, but Yurovsky's second shot finished him off. The next day, the bodies of members of the last royal family of Russia were burned 19 km from Yekaterinburg, in the village of Koptyaki.

One of the most interesting historical topics for me is the high-profile murders of famous personalities. In almost all these murders and the investigations that were then carried out, there are many incomprehensible, contradictory facts. Often the killer was not found, or only the perpetrator, the scapegoat, was found. The main characters, motives and circumstances of these crimes remained behind the scenes and made it possible for historians to put forward hundreds of different hypotheses, constantly interpret known evidence in a new and different way and write interesting books that I love so much.

In the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, there are more secrets and inconsistencies than the years of the regime, which approved this execution and then carefully concealed its details. In this article, I will only give a few facts that prove that Nicholas II was not killed on that summer day. Although, I assure you, there are many more of them and still many professional historians do not agree with the official statement that the remains of the entire royal family were found, identified and buried.

I will very briefly remind you of the circumstances as a result of which Nicholas II and his family found themselves under the rule of the Bolsheviks and under the threat of execution. For the third year in a row, Russia was drawn into the war, the economy was in decline, and popular anger was fueled by scandals related to the tricks of Rasputin and the German origin of the emperor's wife. Unrest begins in Petrograd.

Nicholas II at that time was going to Tsarskoe Selo, because of the riots, he was forced to make a detour through the Dno station and Pskov. It is in Pskov that the tsar receives telegrams with requests from the commanders-in-chief to abdicate and signs two manifestos that legitimize his abdication. After this turning point for the empire and his own event, Nikolai lives for some time under the protection of the Provisional Government, then falls into the hands of the Bolsheviks and dies in the basement of the Ipatiev house in July 1918 ... Or not? Let's look at the facts.

Fact number 1. Contradictory, and in some places simply fabulous testimonies of the participants in the execution.

For example, the commandant of the Ipatiev house and the leader of the execution, Ya.M. Yurovsky, in his note compiled for the historian Pokrovsky, claims that during the execution, the bullets ricocheted off the victims and flew around the room in a hail, as the women sewed up gems in your corsages. How many stones are needed for the corsage to provide the same protection as cast chain mail ?!

Another alleged participant in the execution, M.A. Medvedev, recalled not only a hail of ricochets, but also stone pillars that had come from nowhere in a room in the basement, as well as a powder fog, because of which the executioners almost shot each other! And this, given that smokeless powder was invented more than thirty years before the events described.

Another killer, Pyotr Ermakov, argued that he single-handedly shot all the Romanovs and their servants.

The same room in the Ipatiev house, where, according to both the Bolsheviks and the chief White Guard investigators, the family of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov was shot. It is quite possible that completely different people were shot here. More on this in future articles.

Fact number 2. There is a lot of evidence that the whole family of Nicholas II or one of its members were alive after the day of execution.

The railway conductor Samoilov, who lived in the apartment of one of the tsar's guards, Alexander Varakushev, assured the White Guards interrogating him that Nicholas II and his wife were alive on the morning of July 17. Varakushev convinced Samoilov that he saw them after the "execution" at the railway station. Samoilov himself saw only a mysterious car, the windows of which were painted over with black paint.

There are documented testimonies of Captain Malinovsky, and several other witnesses who heard from the Bolsheviks themselves (in particular from Commissar Goloshchekin) that only the tsar was shot, the rest of the family was simply taken out (most likely to Perm).

The same "Anastasia", which had a striking resemblance to one of the daughters of Nicholas II. It is worth noting, however, that there were many facts indicating that she was an impostor, for example, she knew almost no Russian.

There is a lot of evidence that Anastasia, one of the Grand Duchesses, escaped execution, managed to escape from prison and ended up in Germany. For example, the children of the court physician Botkin recognized her. She knew many details from the life of the imperial family, which were later confirmed. And most importantly, an examination was carried out and the similarity of the structure of her auricle with the shell of Anastasia was established (after all, photographs and even videotapes depicting this daughter of Nikolai were preserved) in 17 parameters (according to German law, only 12 is enough).

The whole world (at least the world of historians) knows about the note of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou, which was made public only after her death. In it, she claimed that she was Mary, the daughter of the last Russian emperor, and that the death of the royal family was an invention of the Bolsheviks. Nicholas II accepted certain conditions of his enemies and saved the family (although later it was separated). The story of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou is confirmed by documents from the archives of the Vatican and Germany.

Fact number 3. The king's life was more profitable than death.

On the one hand, the masses demanded the execution of the tsar and, as you know, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate much with executions. But the execution of the royal family is not an execution, it is necessary to sentence to execution, to hold a trial. Here there was a murder without trial (at least formal, indicative) and investigation. And even if the former autocrat was still killed, why didn’t they show the corpse, didn’t prove to the people that they fulfilled his desire.

On the one hand, why should the Reds leave Nicholas II alive, he can become the banner of the counter-revolution. On the other hand, the dead are also of little use. And he could, for example, be exchanged alive for freedom for the German communist Karl Liebknecht (according to one version, the Bolsheviks did just that). There is also a version that the Germans, without whom at that time the communists would have had a very hard time, needed the signature of the former tsar on the Brest Treaty and his life as a guarantee of the fulfillment of the contract. They wanted to secure themselves in case the Bolsheviks did not hold on to power.

Also, do not forget that Wilhelm II was the cousin of Nicholas. It is hard to imagine that after almost four years of war, the German Kaiser had some kind of warm feelings towards the Russian Tsar. But some researchers believe that it was the Kaiser who saved the crowned family, since he did not want the death of his relatives, even if they were yesterday's enemies.

Nicholas II with his children. I would like to believe that they all survived that terrible summer night.

I do not know if this article was able to convince anyone that the latter Russian emperor was not killed in July 1918. But, I hope that many had doubts about this, which prompted them to dig deeper, to consider other evidence that contradicts the official version. You can find much more facts indicating that the official version of the death of Nicholas II is false, for example, in the book of L.M. Sonin "The mystery of the death of the royal family". Most of the material for this article I took from this book.

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 on a special basis. important matters ON THE. 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 in Yekaterinburg for two years, conducted interrogations a large number 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, considering that it is necessary to first get exactly acquainted with how, under what conditions, how reliable protection is, how, in a word, is contained former king Nikolay Romanov. 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 Soviet, 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" falsifications Soviet historians” is 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 argued for 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.

Nicholas II with his daughters Olga, Anastasia and Tatyana (Tobolsk, winter 1917). Photo: Wikipedia

“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 to intimidate, horrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up their own ranks, to show that there was no retreat, that complete victory or complete death lay ahead. There were probably doubts and shaking of heads in the 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.

Interview with Vladimir Sychev on the Romanov case

In June 1987 I was in Venice with the French press accompanying François Mitterrand to the G7 summit. During the breaks between pools, an Italian journalist approached me and asked me something in French. Realizing from my accent that I was not French, he looked at my French accreditation and asked where I was from. - Russian, - I answered. - That's how? - my interlocutor was surprised. Under his arm, he held an Italian newspaper, from where he translated a huge, half-page article.

Sister Pascalina dies in a private clinic in Switzerland. She was known throughout the Catholic world, because. passed with the future Pope Pius XXII from 1917, when he was still Cardinal Pacelli in Munich (Bavaria), until his death in the Vatican in 1958. She had such a strong influence on him that he entrusted the entire administration of the Vatican to her, and when the cardinals asked for an audience with the Pope, she decided who was worthy of such an audience and who was not. This is a short retelling of a large article, the meaning of which was that the phrase uttered at the end and not a mere mortal, we had to believe. Sister Pascalina asked to invite a lawyer and witnesses, as she did not want to take her to the grave the secret of your life. When they arrived, she only said that the woman buried in the village Morcote, near Lake Maggiore - indeed daughter of the Russian Tsar - Olga!!

I convinced my Italian colleague that this was a gift from Fate and that it was useless to resist it. Having learned that he was from Milan, I told him that I would not fly back to Paris on the presidential press plane, but we would go to this village for half a day. We went there after the summit. It turned out that this was no longer Italy, but Switzerland, but we quickly found a village, a cemetery and a cemetery watchman who led us to the grave. On the gravestone is a photograph of an elderly woman and an inscription in German: Olga Nikolaevna(without a surname), the eldest daughter of Nikolai Romanov, Tsar of Russia, and dates of life - 1985-1976 !!!

The Italian journalist was an excellent translator for me, but he clearly did not want to stay there for the whole day. I had to ask questions.

When did she move in here? - In 1948.

She said that she is the daughter of the Russian Tsar? - Of course, and the whole village knew about it.

Did it get into the press? - Yes.

How did the other Romanovs react to this? Did they sue? - Served.

And did she lose? - Yes, I lost.

In this case, she had to pay the opposing party's legal costs. - She paid.

She worked? - Not.

Where does she get the money from? - Yes, the whole village knew that the Vatican contained it !!

The ring is closed. I went to Paris and began to look for what is known on this issue ... And quickly came across a book by two English journalists.

Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published a book in 1979 "Dossier on the king"(“The Case of the Romanovs, or the execution that never happened”). They began with the fact that if the secrecy stamp is removed from state archives after 60 years, then in 1978 60 years from the date of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles expire, and you can “dig up” something there by looking into the declassified archives. That is, at first there was an idea just to look ... And they very quickly got on telegrams English ambassador to his Foreign Office that the royal family was taken from Yekaterinburg to Perm. There is no need to explain to professionals from the BBC that this is a sensation. They rushed to Berlin.

It quickly became clear that the Whites, having entered Yekaterinburg on July 25, immediately appointed an investigator to investigate the execution of the royal family. Nikolai Sokolov, whose book everyone still refers to, is the third investigator who received the case only at the end of February 1919! Then a simple question arises: who were the first two and what did they report to the authorities? So, the first investigator named Nametkin, appointed by Kolchak, having worked for three months and declaring that he is a professional, is a simple matter, and he does not need additional time (and the Whites were advancing and had no doubts about their victory at that time - i.e. all the time is yours, don’t rush, work!), puts a report on the table that there was no shooting, but there was a staged execution. Kolchak this report - under the cloth and appoints a second investigator by the name of Sergeev. He also works for three months and at the end of February gives Kolchak the same report with the same words (“I am a professional, it’s a simple matter, no extra time is needed,” there was no shooting- there was a staged execution).

Here it is necessary to explain and remind that it was the Whites who overthrew the tsar, and not the Reds, and they sent him into exile in Siberia! Lenin in these February days was in Zurich. Whatever ordinary soldiers say, the white elite are not monarchists, but republicans. And Kolchak did not need a living tsar. I advise those who have doubts to read Trotsky's diaries, where he writes that "if the whites put up any tsar - even a peasant one - we would not have lasted even two weeks"! These are the words of the Supreme Commander of the Red Army and the ideologist of the Red Terror!! Please believe.

Therefore, Kolchak already puts "his" investigator Nikolai Sokolov and gives him a task. And Nikolai Sokolov also works for only three months - but for a different reason. The Reds entered Yekaterinburg in May, and he retreated along with the Whites. He took the archives, but what did he write?

1. He did not find the bodies, and for the police of any country in any system "no bodies - no murder" - this is a disappearance! After all, when arrested serial killers the police demand to show where the corpses are hidden!! You can say whatever you want, even at yourself, and the investigator needs material evidence!

And Nikolai Sokolov "hangs the first noodles on his ears": “thrown into a mine, filled with acid”. Now they prefer to forget this phrase, but we heard it until 1998! And for some reason no one ever doubted. Is it possible to flood the mine with acid? But acid is not enough! In the local history museum of Yekaterinburg, where the director Avdonin (the same, one of the three who “accidentally” found bones on the Starokotlyakovskaya road, cleared to them by three investigators in 1918-19), hangs a certificate about those soldiers on the truck that they had 78 liters of gasoline (not acid). In July, in the Siberian taiga, having 78 liters of gasoline, you can burn the entire Moscow zoo! No, they went back and forth, first they threw it into the mine, poured it with acid, and then they took it out and hid it under the sleepers ...

By the way, on the night of the "execution" from July 16 to July 17, 1918, a huge train with the entire local Red Army, the local Central Committee and the local Cheka left Yekaterinburg for Perm. The Whites entered on the eighth day, and Yurovsky, Beloborodov and his comrades shifted the responsibility to two soldiers? The inconsistency, - tea, they did not deal with a peasant revolt. And if they shot at their own discretion, they could have done it a month earlier.

2. The second "noodle" of Nikolai Sokolov - he describes the basement of the Ipatievsky house, publishes photographs where it is clear that bullets are in the walls and in the ceiling (apparently, they do this when staging an execution). Conclusion - women's corsets were stuffed with diamonds, and the bullets ricocheted! So, like this: the king from the throne and into exile in Siberia. Money in England and Switzerland, and they sew diamonds into corsets to sell to peasants in the market? Well well!

3. In the same book by Nikolai Sokolov, the same basement in the same Ipatiev house is described, where in the fireplace lies clothes from each member of the imperial family and hair from each head. Were they sheared and changed (undressed??) before being shot? Not at all - they were taken out by the same train on that same "night of execution", but they cut their hair and changed clothes so that no one would recognize them there.

Tom Magold and Anthony Summers intuitively realized that the clue to this intriguing detective story must be sought in Brest Peace Treaty. And they began to look for the original text. And what?? With all the removal of secrets after 60 years of such an official document nowhere! It is not in the declassified archives of London or Berlin. They searched everywhere - and everywhere they found only quotes, but nowhere could they find the full text! And they came to the conclusion that the Kaiser demanded the extradition of women from Lenin. The tsar's wife is a relative of the Kaiser, the daughters are German citizens and did not have the right to the throne, and besides, the Kaiser at that moment could crush Lenin like a bug! And here are Lenin's words that "the world is humiliating and obscene, but it must be signed", and the July coup attempt of the Socialist-Revolutionaries with Dzerzhinsky, who joined them at the Bolshoi Theater, take on a completely different look.

Officially, we were taught that the Trotsky treaty was signed only on the second attempt and only after the start of the offensive of the German army, when it became clear to everyone that the Republic of Soviets could not resist. If there is simply no army, what is “humiliating and obscene” here? Nothing. But if it is necessary to hand over all the women of the royal family, and even to the Germans, and even during the First World War, then ideologically everything is in its place, and the words are read correctly. What Lenin did, and the entire ladies' section was handed over to the Germans in Kyiv. And immediately murder the German ambassador Mirbach in Moscow and the German consul in Kyiv make sense.

"Dossier on the Tsar" is a fascinating investigation into one cunningly tangled intrigue of world history. The book was published in 1979, so the words of Sister Pascalina in 1983 about Olga's grave could not get into it. And if there were no new facts, then simply retelling someone else's book here would not make sense ...

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

About the causes and main characters of 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 hold a trial of Nicholas II, but then abandoned this idea. Why?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Did the royal family have a chance for salvation?

“Yes, if their English relatives had not betrayed them. In March 1917, when the family of Nicholas II was under arrest in Tsarskoye Selo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government Milyukov offered the option of her going to the UK. Nicholas II agreed to leave. BUT George V, the English king and at the same time cousin of Nicholas II, agreed to accept the Romanov family. But a few days later, George V took his royal word back. Although in letters George V swore to Nicholas II in his friendship until the end of days! The British betrayed not just the king of a foreign power - they betrayed their close relatives, Alexandra Feodorovna - the beloved granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. But George V, also a grandson of Victoria, obviously did not want Nicholas II to remain a living center of attraction for Russian patriotic forces. 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 its days were numbered?

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