The death of Nicholas 2. The terrifying story of the execution of the Romanov family. This kind of money is worth fighting for

The Romanov family was numerous; there were no problems with the successors to the throne. In 1918, after the Bolsheviks shot the emperor, his wife and children, a large number of impostors appeared. Rumors spread that that very night in Yekaterinburg, one of them still survived.

And today many believe that one of the children could have been saved and that their offspring could live among us.

Anastasia was Nikolai's youngest daughter. In 1918, when the Romanovs were executed, Anastasia’s remains were not found in the family’s burial place and rumors spread that the young princess had survived.

People all over the world have been reincarnated as Anastasia. One of the most prominent impostors was Anna Anderson. I think she was from Poland.

Anna imitated Anastasia in her behavior, and rumors that Anastasia was alive spread quite quickly. Many also tried to imitate her sisters and brother. People all over the world tried to cheat, but Russia had the most doppelgängers.

Many believed that the children of Nicholas II survived. But even after the burial of the Romanov family was found, scientists were unable to identify the remains of Anastasia. Most historians still cannot confirm that the Bolsheviks killed Anastasia.

Later, a secret burial was found, in which the remains of the young princess were discovered, and forensic experts were able to prove that she died along with the rest of the family in 1918. Her remains were reburied in 1998.

Many people believed that the Bolsheviks buried the Romanovs in various places in the Sverdlovsk region. In addition, many were convinced that two of the children were able to escape.

There was a theory that Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria were able to escape from the scene of the terrible execution. In 1976, scientists picked up a trail with the remains of the Romanovs. In 1991, when the era of communism was over, researchers were able to obtain government permission to open the burial site of the Romanovs, the same one left by the Bolsheviks.

But scientists needed DNA analysis to confirm the theory. They asked Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent to provide DNA samples to compare with those of the royal couple. Forensic experts confirmed that the DNA did indeed belong to the Romanovs. As a result of this research, it was possible to confirm that the Bolsheviks buried Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria separately from the rest.

In 2007, Sergei Plotnikov, one of the founders of an amateur historical group, made an amazing discovery. His group was searching for any facts related to the royal family.

In his free time, Sergei was engaged in searching for the remains of the Romanovs at the supposed site of the first burial. And one day he was lucky, he came across something solid and started digging.

To his surprise, he found several fragments of pelvic and skull bones. After an examination, it was established that these bones belong to the children of Nicholas II.

After an analysis of the bones of Alexei and Maria, it was found that the bones were severely damaged, but differently than the bones of the emperor himself.

Traces of bullets were found on Nikolai's remains, which means the children were killed in a different way. The rest of the family also suffered in their own ways.

Scientists were able to establish that Alexei and Maria were doused with acid and died from burns. Despite the fact that these two children were buried separately from the rest of the family, they suffered no less.

Archaeologists discovered 9 skulls, teeth, bullets of various calibers, fabric from clothes and wires from a wooden box. The remains were determined to be those of a boy and a woman, with approximate ages ranging from 10 to 23 years.

The likelihood that the boy was Tsarevich Alexei, and the girl Princess Maria, is quite high. In addition, there were theories that the government managed to discover the location where the Romanov bones were kept. There were rumors that the remains had been found back in 1979, but the government kept this information secret.

In 1990, another group of archaeologists decided to start excavations, in the hope that they would be able to discover some more traces of the location of the remains of the Romanovs.

After several days or even weeks, they dug up an area the size of a football field, but never completed the study because they ran out of money. Surprisingly, Sergei Plotnikov found bone fragments in this very territory.

The Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the fact that the bones actually belonged to the Romanov family. The Church demanded more evidence that these same remains were actually found in the burial of the royal family in Yekaterinburg.

The successors of the Romanov family supported the Russian Orthodox Church, demanding additional research and confirmation that the bones really belong to the children of Nicholas II.

The reburial of the family was postponed many times, as the Russian Orthodox Church each time questioned the correctness of the DNA analysis and the belonging of the bones to the Romanov family. The church asked forensic experts to conduct an additional examination. After scientists finally managed to convince the church that the remains really belonged to the royal family, the Russian Orthodox Church planned a reburial.

The successors of the family tree of the Romanov dynasty live among us. One of the heirs to the royal genes is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and he provided his DNA for research. Prince Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, grandniece of Princess Alexandra, and the great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.

Another relative who helped with DNA identification is Prince Michael of Kent. His grandmother was a cousin of Nicholas II.

There are eight more successors of this family: Hugh Grosvenor, Constantine II, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, Olga Andreevna Romanova, Francis Alexander Matthew, Nicoletta Romanova, Rostislav Romanov. But these relatives did not provide their DNA for analysis, since Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent were recognized as the closest relatives.

The Bolsheviks executed the royal family in Yekaterinburg, and they needed to somehow hide the evidence of the crime.

There are two theories about how the Bolsheviks killed children. According to the first version, they first shot Nikolai, and then put his daughters in a mine where no one could find them. The Bolsheviks tried to blow up the mine, but their plan failed, so they decided to pour acid on the children and burn them.

According to the second version, the Bolsheviks wanted to cremate the bodies of the murdered Alexei and Maria. After several studies, scientists and forensic experts concluded that it was not possible to cremate the bodies.

To cremate a human body, you need a very high temperature, and the Bolsheviks were in the forest, and they did not have the opportunity to create the necessary conditions. After unsuccessful attempts at cremation, they finally decided to bury the bodies, but divided the family into two graves.

The fact that the family was not buried together explains why not all family members were initially found. This also disproves the theory that Alexei and Maria managed to escape.

The mystery of the Romanov dynasty rests with their remains in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. After numerous studies, scientists still agreed that the remains belong to Nikolai and his family.

The last farewell ceremony took place in an Orthodox church and lasted three days. During the funeral procession, many still questioned the authenticity of the remains. But scientists say the bones match 97% of the royal family's DNA.

In Russia, this ceremony was given special significance. Residents of fifty countries around the world watched as the Romanov family retired. It took more than 80 years to debunk the myths about the family of the last emperor of the Russian Empire. With the completion of the funeral procession, an entire era passed into the past.

Almost a hundred years have passed since that terrible night when the Russian Empire ceased to exist forever. Until now, no historian can state unequivocally what happened that night and whether any of the family members survived. Most likely, the secret of this family will remain unsolved and we can only guess what really happened.

He was not shot, but the entire female half of the royal family was taken to Germany. But the documents are still classified...

FOR me, this story began in November 1983. I then worked as a photojournalist for a French agency and was sent to a summit of heads of state and government in Venice. There I accidentally met an Italian colleague, who, having learned that I was Russian, showed me a newspaper (I think it was La Repubblica) dated the day of our meeting. In the article to which the Italian drew my attention, it was said that a certain nun, Sister Pascalina, died in Rome at a very old age. I later learned that this woman held an important position in the Vatican hierarchy under Pope Pius XII (1939 -1958), but that is not the point.

The mystery of the Vatican's "Iron Lady"

THIS sister Pascalina, who earned the honorable nickname of the “Iron Lady” of the Vatican, before her death called a notary with two witnesses and in their presence dictated information that she did not want to take with her to the grave: one of the daughters of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II - Olga - was not shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, 1918, she lived a long life and was buried in a cemetery in the village of Marcotte in northern Italy.

After the summit, I and my Italian friend, who was both my driver and translator, went to this village. We found the cemetery and this grave. On the slab was written in German: “Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov” - and the dates of her life: “1895 - 1976”. We talked with the cemetery watchman and his wife: they, like all the village residents, remembered Olga Nikolaevna very well, knew who she was, and were sure that the Russian Grand Duchess was under the protection of the Vatican.

This strange find interested me extremely, and I decided to look into all the circumstances of the execution myself. And in general, was he there?

I have every reason to believe that there was no execution. On the night of July 16-17, all the Bolsheviks and their sympathizers left by rail for Perm. The next morning, leaflets were posted around Yekaterinburg with the message that the royal family had been taken away from the city - and so it was. Soon the city was occupied by whites. Naturally, an investigative commission was formed “in the case of the disappearance of Emperor Nicholas II, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses,” which did not find any convincing traces of the execution.

Investigator Sergeev said in an interview with an American newspaper in 1919: “I don’t think that everyone was executed here - both the tsar and his family. In my opinion, the empress, prince and grand duchesses were not executed in Ipatiev’s house.” This conclusion did not suit Admiral Kolchak, who by that time had already proclaimed himself the “supreme ruler of Russia.” And really, why does the “supreme” need some kind of emperor? Kolchak ordered the assembly of a second investigative team, which got to the bottom of the fact that in September 1918 the Empress and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. Only the third investigator, Nikolai Sokolov (led the case from February to May 1919), turned out to be more understanding and issued the well-known conclusion that the entire family was shot, the corpses were dismembered and burned at the stake. “The parts that were not susceptible to fire,” wrote Sokolov, “were destroyed with the help of sulfuric acid.” What, then, was buried in 1998 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? Let me remind you that shortly after the start of perestroika, some skeletons were found in Porosyonkovo ​​Log near Yekaterinburg. In 1998, they were solemnly reburied in the Romanov family tomb, after numerous genetic examinations were carried out before that. Moreover, the guarantor of the authenticity of the royal remains was the secular power of Russia in the person of President Boris Yeltsin. But the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the bones as the remains of the royal family.

But let's go back to the Civil War. According to my information, the royal family was divided in Perm. The path of the female part lay in Germany, while the men - Nikolai Romanov himself and Tsarevich Alexei - were left in Russia. Father and son were kept for a long time near Serpukhov at the former dacha of the merchant Konshin. Later, in NKVD reports, this place was known as “Object No. 17.” Most likely, the prince died in 1920 from hemophilia. I can’t say anything about the fate of the last Russian emperor. Except for one thing: in the 30s, “Object No. 17” was visited twice by Stalin. Does this mean that Nicholas II was still alive in those years?

The men were left hostage

TO understand why such incredible events from the point of view of a person of the 21st century became possible and to find out who needed them, you will have to go back to 1918. Do you remember from the school history course about the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty? Yes, on March 3, in Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty was concluded between Soviet Russia on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey on the other. Russia lost Poland, Finland, the Baltic states and part of Belarus. But this was not why Lenin called the Brest Peace Treaty “humiliating” and “obscene.” By the way, the full text of the agreement has not yet been published either in the East or in the West. I believe that because of the secret conditions present in it. Probably the Kaiser, who was a relative of Empress Maria Feodorovna, demanded that all the women of the royal family be transferred to Germany. The girls had no rights to the Russian throne and, therefore, could not threaten the Bolsheviks in any way. The men remained hostages - as guarantors that the German army would not venture further east than stated in the peace treaty.

What happened next? What was the fate of the women brought to the West? Was their silence a requirement for their integrity? Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers.

By the way

Romanovs and false Romanovs

IN DIFFERENT years, more than a hundred “miraculously saved” Romanovs appeared in the world. Moreover, in some periods and in some countries there were so many of them that they even organized meetings. The most famous false Anastasia is Anna Anderson, who declared herself the daughter of Nicholas II in 1920. The Supreme Court of Germany finally denied her this only 50 years later. The most recent "Anastasia" is the hundred-year-old Natalia Petrovna Bilikhodze, who continued to play this old play as late as 2002!

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as -medic Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexey Trupp, room girl Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov.

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

After his abdication, from March to August 1917, Nicholas and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo. A special commission of the Provisional Government studied materials for the possible trial of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on charges of treason. Having not found evidence and documents that clearly convicted them of this, the Provisional Government was inclined to deport them abroad (to Great Britain).

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

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

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

© Photo: Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg

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

Based on documentary sources, it is possible to establish the time when the murder of Nicholas II, members of his family and their servants began. The car that delivered the last order to exterminate the family arrived at half past two on the night of July 16-17, 1918. After which the commandant ordered physician Botkin to wake up the royal family. It took the family about 40 minutes to get ready, then she and the servants were transferred to the semi-basement of this house, with a window overlooking Voznesensky Lane. Nicholas II carried Tsarevich Alexei in his arms because he could not walk due to illness. At Alexandra Feodorovna’s request, two chairs were brought into the room. She sat on one, and Tsarevich Alexei sat on the other. The rest were located along the wall. Yurovsky led the firing squad into the room and read the verdict.

This is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I invited everyone to stand up. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies The Urals decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: “Shoot.” I shot first and killed Nikolai on the spot. The shooting lasted a very long time and, despite my hopes that the wooden wall would not ricochet, the bullets bounced off it ". For a long time I was not able to stop this shooting, which had become careless. But when, finally, I managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Doctor Botkin was lying, leaning on the elbow of his right hand, as if in a resting position, with a revolver shot ended him. Alexey, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Comrade Ermakov wanted to finish the matter with a bayonet. But, however, this did not succeed. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond armor like bras). I was forced to shoot each one in turn."

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

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

On July 17, 1998, the burial of the remains of members of the royal family took place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg.

In October 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. Servants and associates of the royal family who were executed by the Bolsheviks or subjected to repression were rehabilitated.

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

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

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

On October 27, 2011, a resolution was issued to terminate the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family. The 800-page resolution outlines the main conclusions of the investigation and indicates the authenticity of the discovered remains of the royal family.

However, the question of authentication still remains open. The Russian Orthodox Church, in order to recognize the found remains as the relics of royal martyrs, the Russian Imperial House supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue. The director of the chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic testing is not enough.

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

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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

Tells about the reasons and main characters of the murder of the royal family 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, led by Lenin in January 1918 announced that the trial of the former emperor Nicholas II will. It was assumed that the main accusation would be Bloody Sunday - January 9, 1905. However, Lenin in the end could not help but realize that that tragedy did not guarantee a death sentence. Firstly, Nicholas II did not give the order to shoot the workers; he was not in St. Petersburg at all that day. And secondly, by that time the Bolsheviks themselves had soiled themselves with “Bloody Friday”: on January 5, 1918, a peaceful demonstration of many thousands in support of the Constituent Assembly was shot in Petrograd. Moreover, they were shot in the same places where people died on Bloody Sunday. How can one then throw it in the king’s face that he is bloody? And Lenin with Dzerzhinsky then which ones?

But let’s assume that you can find fault with any head of state. But what is my fault? Alexandra Fedorovna? Is that the wife? Why should the sovereign’s children be judged? The women and the teenager would have to be released from custody right there in the courtroom, admitting that the Soviet government repressed the innocent.

In March 1918, the Bolsheviks concluded a separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the German aggressors. The Bolsheviks gave up Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states, and pledged to demobilize the army and navy and pay 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

— In Soviet times, 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 security guard of Lenin Akimov said that he personally sent a telegram from Vladimir Ilyich to Yekaterinburg with a direct order to shoot the Tsar. This evidence confirmed the memories Yurovsky, commandant of the Ipatiev House, and the head of his security Ermakova, who previously admitted that they had received a death telegram from Moscow.

Also revealed was the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) dated May 19, 1918 with instructions Yakov Sverdlov deal with the case of Nicholas II. Therefore, the tsar and his family were sent specifically to Yekaterinburg - Sverdlov’s patrimony, 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, July 18, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced that Nicholas II had been shot, and his wife and children were evacuated to a safe place. That is, Sverdlov and Lenin deceived the Soviet people by declaring that their wife and children were alive. They deceived us because they understood perfectly well: in the eyes of the public, killing innocent women and a 13-year-old boy is a terrible crime.

— There is a version that the family was killed because of the advance of the whites. They say that the White Guards could return the Romanovs to the throne.

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

The real reason for the destruction of the family of Nicholas II is different: they were a living symbol of the great thousand-year-old Orthodox Russia, which Lenin hated. In addition, in June-July 1918, a large-scale Civil War broke out in the country. Lenin needed to unite 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 of salvation?

- Yes, if their English relatives had not betrayed them. In March 1917, when the family of Nicholas II was under arrest in Tsarskoe Selo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government Miliukov suggested the option of her going to the UK. Nicholas II agreed to leave. A George V, the English king and at the same time the cousin of Nicholas II, agreed to accept the Romanov family. But within a matter of days, George V took back his royal word. Although in letters George V swore to Nicholas II of his friendship until the end of days! The British betrayed not just the Tsar of a foreign power - they betrayed their close relatives, Alexandra Feodorovna is the beloved granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. But George V, also Victoria’s grandson, obviously did not want Nicholas II to remain a living center of gravity for Russian patriotic forces. The revival of a strong Russia was not in Britain's interests. And the family of Nicholas II had no other options to save themselves.

— Did the royal family understand that its days were numbered?

- Yes. Even the children understood that death was approaching. Alexei once said: “If they kill, 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 the killers’ revelations do not tell the whole truth. No wonder the regicide Voikov said: “The world will never know what we did to them.”

Was everyone who in one way or another came close to the execution of the royal family killed? Why can’t you trust the books of Sokolov (the seventh! investigator in this case), published after his murder? The historian of the royal family, Sergei Ivanovich, answers these questions.

The royal family was not shot!

The last Russian Tsar was not shot, but perhaps left hostage.

Agree: it would be stupid to shoot the Tsar without first shaking out his honestly earned money from his cashboxes. So he was not shot. However, it was not possible to get the money right away, because the times were too turbulent...

Regularly, by the middle of summer of each year, loud crying for the king, who was killed for no reason, is resumed. NicholasII, whom Christians also “canonized” in 2000. Here is Comrade. Starikov, exactly on July 17, once again threw “wood” into the firebox of emotional lamentations about nothing. I was not interested in this issue before, and would not have paid attention to another dummy, BUT... At the last meeting in his life with readers, Academician Nikolai Levashov just mentioned that in the 30s Stalin met with NikolaiII and asked him for money to prepare for a future war. This is how Nikolai Goryushin writes about it in his report “There are prophets in our fatherland!” about this meeting with readers:

“...In this regard, the information related to the tragic fate of the latter turned out to be amazing Emperor Russian Empire Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov and his family... In August 1917, he and his family were deported to the last capital of the Slavic-Aryan Empire, the city of Tobolsk. The choice of this city was not accidental, since the highest degrees of Freemasonry are aware of the great past of the Russian people. The exile to Tobolsk was a kind of mockery of the Romanov dynasty, which in 1775 defeated the troops of the Slavic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartaria), and later this event was called the suppression of the peasant revolt of Emelyan Pugachev... In July 1918 Jacob Schiff gives a command to one of his trusted persons in the Bolshevik leadership Yakov Sverdlov for the ritual murder of the royal family. Sverdlov, after consulting with Lenin, orders the commandant of Ipatiev’s house, a security officer Yakov Yurovsky carry out the plan. According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot.

At the meeting, Nikolai Levashov said that in fact NikolaiII and his family were not shot! This statement immediately raises many questions. I decided to look into them. Many works have been written on this topic, and the picture of the execution and the testimony of witnesses look plausible at first glance. The facts obtained by investigator A.F. do not fit into the logical chain. Kirstoy, who joined the investigation in August 1918. During the investigation, he interviewed Dr. P.I. Utkin, who reported that at the end of October 1918 he was invited to the building occupied by the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution to provide medical assistance. The victim turned out to be a young girl, presumably 22 years old, with a cut lip and a tumor under her eye. To the question “who is she?” the girl replied that she was “ daughter of the Tsar Anastasia" During the investigation, investigator Kirsta did not find the corpses of the royal family in Ganina Pit. Soon, Kirsta found numerous witnesses who told him during interrogations that in September 1918, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. And witness Samoilov stated from the words of his neighbor, the guard of Ipatiev’s house Varakushev, that there was no execution, the royal family was loaded into a carriage and taken away.

After receiving this data, A.F. Kirst is removed from the case and ordered to hand over all materials to investigator A.S. Sokolov. Nikolai Levashov reported that the motive for saving the lives of the Tsar and his family was the desire of the Bolsheviks, contrary to the orders of their masters, to take possession of hidden wealth of the dynasty The Romanovs, whose location Nikolai Alexandrovich certainly knew. Soon the organizers of the execution in 1919, Sverdlov, and Lenin in 1924 die. Nikolai Viktorovich clarified that Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR..."

Speech by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Veniamin Alekseev.
Ekaterinburg remains - more questions than answers:

If this was the first lie of Comrade. Starikova, one might well think that the person still knows little and was simply mistaken. But Starikov is the author of several very good books and is very savvy in matters of recent Russian history. This leads to the obvious conclusion that he is deliberately disingenuous. I won’t write here about the reasons for this lie, although they lie right on the surface... I’d better give some more evidence that the royal family was not executed in July 1918, and the rumor about the execution was most likely started for “reporting” before customers - Schiff and other comrades who financed the coup in Russia in February 1917…

Did Nicholas II meet with Stalin?

There are suggestions that Nicholas II was not shot, and the entire female half of the royal family was taken to Germany. But the documents are still classified...

For me, this story began in November 1983. I then worked as a photojournalist for a French agency and was sent to a summit of heads of state and government in Venice. There I accidentally met an Italian colleague, who, having learned that I was Russian, showed me a newspaper (I think it was La Repubblica) dated the day of our meeting. In the article to which the Italian drew my attention, it was said that a certain nun, Sister Pascalina, died in Rome at a very old age. I later learned that this woman held an important position in the Vatican hierarchy under Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), but that is not the point.

The secret of the Vatican's "Iron Lady"

This sister Pascalina, who earned the honorable nickname of the “Iron Lady” of the Vatican, before her death called a notary with two witnesses and in their presence dictated information that she did not want to take with her to the grave: one of the daughters of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II - Olga- was not shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, 1918, but lived a long life and was buried in a cemetery in the village of Marcotte in northern Italy.

After the summit, I and my Italian friend, who was both my driver and translator, went to this village. We found the cemetery and this grave. On the plate was written in German:

« Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov” – and dates of life: “1895-1976”.

We talked with the cemetery watchman and his wife: they, like all the village residents, remembered Olga Nikolaevna very well, knew who she was, and were sure that the Russian Grand Duchess was under the protection of the Vatican.

This strange find interested me extremely, and I decided to look into all the circumstances of the execution myself. And in general, was he there?

I have every reason to believe that there was no execution. On the night of July 16-17, all the Bolsheviks and their sympathizers left by rail for Perm. The next morning, leaflets were posted around Yekaterinburg with the message that the royal family was taken away from the city, - so it was. Soon the city was occupied by whites. Naturally, an investigative commission was formed “in the case of the disappearance of Emperor Nicholas II, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses,” which did not find any convincing traces of the execution.

Investigator Sergeev in 1919 he said in an interview with an American newspaper:

“I don’t think that everyone was executed here - both the king and his family. “In my opinion, the empress, prince and grand duchesses were not executed in Ipatiev’s house.” This conclusion did not suit Admiral Kolchak, who by that time had already proclaimed himself the “supreme ruler of Russia.” And really, why does the “supreme” need some kind of emperor? Kolchak ordered the collection of a second investigative team, which got to the bottom of the fact that in September 1918 the Empress and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. Only the third investigator, Nikolai Sokolov (led the case from February to May 1919), turned out to be more understanding and issued the well-known conclusion that the entire family was shot, the corpses dismembered and burned at the stake. “Parts that were not susceptible to fire,” wrote Sokolov, “were destroyed with the help of sulfuric acid».

What, then, was buried? in 1998. in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? Let me remind you that shortly after the start of perestroika, some skeletons were found in Porosyonkovo ​​Log near Yekaterinburg. In 1998, they were solemnly reburied in the Romanov family tomb, after numerous genetic examinations were carried out before that. Moreover, the guarantor of the authenticity of the royal remains was the secular power of Russia in the person of President Boris Yeltsin. But the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the bones as the remains of the royal family.

But let's go back to the Civil War. According to my information, the royal family was divided in Perm. The path of the female part lay in Germany, while the men - Nikolai Romanov himself and Tsarevich Alexei - were left in Russia. Father and son were kept for a long time near Serpukhov at the former dacha of the merchant Konshin. Later in the NKVD reports this place was known as "Object No. 17". Most likely, the prince died in 1920 from hemophilia. I can’t say anything about the fate of the last Russian emperor. Except for one thing: in the 30s “Object No. 17” Stalin visited twice. Does this mean that Nicholas II was still alive in those years?

The men were left hostage

To understand why such incredible events from the point of view of a person of the 21st century became possible and to find out who needed them, you will have to go back to 1918. Do you remember from the school history course about the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty? Yes, on March 3, in Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty was concluded between Soviet Russia on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey on the other. Russia lost Poland, Finland, the Baltic states and part of Belarus. But this was not why Lenin called the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty “humiliating” and “obscene.” By the way, the full text of the agreement has not yet been published either in the East or in the West. I believe that because of the secret conditions present in it. Probably the Kaiser, who was a relative of Empress Maria Feodorovna, demanded that all women of the royal family be transferred to Germany. The girls had no rights to the Russian throne and, therefore, could not threaten the Bolsheviks in any way. The men remained hostages - as guarantors that the German army would not venture further east than stated in the peace treaty.

What happened next? What was the fate of the women brought to the West? Was their silence a requirement for their integrity? Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers.

Interview with Vladimir Sychev on the Romanov case

A most interesting interview with Vladimir Sychev, who refutes the official version of the execution of the royal family. He talks about the grave of Olga Romanova in northern Italy, about the investigation of two British journalists, about the conditions of the Brest Peace of 1918, under which all the women of the royal family were handed over to the Germans in Kyiv...

Author – Vladimir Sychev

The execution of the royal family is a falsification (Sychev V.):

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

Sister Pascalina dies in a private clinic in Switzerland. She was known to the entire Catholic world, because... passed with the future Pope Pius XXII from 1917, when he was still Cardinal Pacelli in Munich (Bavaria), until his death in the Vatican in 1958. She had such a strong influence on him that he entrusted her with the entire administration of the Vatican, and when the cardinals asked for an audience with the Pope, she decided who was worthy of such an audience and who was not. This is a short retelling of a long article, the meaning of which was that we had to believe the phrase uttered at the end and not by a mere mortal. Sister Pascalina asked to invite a lawyer and witnesses because she did not want to take her to the grave the secret of your life. When they appeared, 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 he and I would go to this village for half a day. We went there after the summit. It turned out that this was no longer Italy, but Switzerland, but we quickly found a village, a cemetery and a cemetery watchman who led us to the grave. On the gravestone there is a photograph of an elderly woman and an inscription in German: Olga Nikolaevna(no surname), 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 didn’t want to stay there for the whole day. All I had to do was ask questions.

– When did she live here? – In 1948.

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

– Did this get into the press? - Yes.

– How did the other Romanovs react to this? Did they sue? - They served it.

- And she lost? - Yes, I lost.

– In this case, she had to pay the legal costs of the other party. - She paid.

- She worked? - No.

-Where does she get the money from? – Yes, the whole village knew that the Vatican was supporting her!!

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

II

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

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

Here it is necessary to explain and remind that it was the Whites who overthrew the Tsar, not the Reds, and they sent him into exile in Siberia! Lenin was in Zurich these February days. No matter what ordinary soldiers say, the white elite are not monarchists, but republicans. And Kolchak did not need a living Tsar. I advise those who have doubts to read Trotsky’s diaries, where he writes that “if the Whites had nominated any tsar - even a peasant one - we would not have lasted even two weeks”! These are the words of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army and the ideologist of the Red Terror!! Please believe me.

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

1. He did not find any corpses, and for the police of any country in any system “no bodies - no murder” is a disappearance! After all, when arresting serial killers, the police demand to see where the corpses are hidden!! You can say anything, even about yourself, but the investigator needs physical evidence!

And Nikolai Sokolov “hangs the first noodles on our ears”:

“thrown into a mine, filled with acid”.

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

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

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

3. The same book by Nikolai Sokolov describes the same basement in the same Ipatiev house, where in the fireplace there are clothes from every member of the imperial family and hair from every head. Did they have their hair cut and changed (undressed??) before being shot? Not at all - they were taken out on the same train on that very “night of the execution”, but they cut their hair and changed their clothes so that no one would recognize them there.

III

Tom Magold and Anthony Summers intuitively understood that the answer to this intriguing detective story must be sought in Treaty of the Brest-Litovsk Peace. 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 from Lenin that the women be extradited. The Tsar's wife was a relative of the Kaiser, his daughters were German citizens and had no right to the throne, and besides, the Kaiser at that moment could crush Lenin like a bug! And here are Lenin’s words that “The world is humiliating and obscene, but it must be signed”, and the July attempt at a coup by the Socialist Revolutionaries with Dzerzhinsky joining them at the Bolshoi Theater takes on a completely different form.

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

“Dossier on the Tsar” is a fascinating investigation into one cunningly intricate intrigue of world history. The book was published in 1979, so the words of sister Paskalina in 1983 about Olga’s grave could not have been included in it. And if there were no new facts, there would be no point in simply retelling someone else’s book here.

10 years have passed. In November 1997, in Moscow, I met former political prisoner Geliy Donskoy from St. Petersburg. The conversation over tea in the kitchen also touched upon the king and his family. When I said that there was no execution, he calmly answered me:

– I know it wasn’t.

- Well, you are the first in 10 years,

- I answered him, almost falling from my chair.

Then I asked him to tell me his sequence of events, wanting to find out at what point our versions coincide and at what point they begin to diverge. He did not know about the extradition of the women, believing that they died somewhere in different places. There was no doubt that they were all taken out of Yekaterinburg. I told him about the “Dossier on the Tsar,” and he told me about one seemingly insignificant find that he and his friends noticed in the 80s.

They came across the memoirs of the participants in the “execution”, published in the 30s. In them, in addition to the well-known facts that two weeks before the “execution” a new guard arrived, they said that a high fence was built around the Ipatievsky house. It would be of no use for execution in a basement, but if a family needs to be taken out unnoticed, then it would come in handy. The most important thing - which no one had ever paid attention to before - was that the head of the new guard spoke to Yurovsky in a foreign language! They checked the lists - the head of the new guard was Lisitsyn (all participants in the “execution” are known). It seems nothing special. And here they were really lucky: at the beginning of perestroika, Gorbachev opened hitherto closed archives (my Sovietologist friends confirmed that this happened for two years), and then they began searching in declassified documents. And they found it! It turned out that Lisitsyn was not Lisitsyn at all, but an American Fox!!! I was ready for this a long time ago. I already knew from books and from life that Trotsky came to make a revolution from New York on a ship full of Americans (everyone knows about Lenin and the two carriages with Germans and Austrians). The Kremlin was full of foreigners who did not speak Russian (there was even Petin, but an Austrian!) Therefore, the guards were made up of Latvian riflemen, so that the people would not even think that foreigners had seized power.

And then my new friend Geliy Donskoy completely captivated me. He asked himself one very important question. Fox-Lisitsyn arrived as the head of the new guard (in reality, the head of the royal family’s security) on July 2. On the night of the “execution” on July 16-17, 1918, he left on the same train. And where did he get his new assignment? He became the first head of the new secret facility No. 17 near Serpukhov (on the estate of the former merchant Konshin), which Stalin visited twice! (why?! More on that below.)

I have been telling this whole story with the new continuation to all my friends since 1997.

On one of my visits to Moscow, my friend Yura Feklistov asked me to visit his school friend, and now a candidate of historical sciences, so that I could tell him everything myself. That historian named Sergei was the press secretary of the Kremlin commandant’s office (scientists were not paid salaries in those days). At the appointed hour, Yura and I climbed the wide Kremlin stairs and entered the office. Just like now in this article, I started with sister Pascalina and when I came to her phrase that “the woman buried in the village of Morkote is really the daughter of the Russian Tsar Olga,” Sergei almost jumped: “Now it’s clear why The Patriarch did not go to the funeral! - he exclaimed.

This was also obvious to me - after all, despite the strained relations between different faiths, when it comes to persons of this rank, information is exchanged. I just did not understand the position of the “workers”, who from faithful Marxists-Leninists suddenly became devout Christians, do not value several statements of His Holiness himself. After all, even I, being in Moscow only on visits, twice heard the Patriarch say on central television that the examination of the royal bones cannot be trusted! I heard it twice, but what, no one else?? Well, he could not say more and declare publicly that there was no execution. This is the prerogative of the highest government officials, not the church.

Further, when at the very end I told that the tsar and the prince were settled near Serpukhov on the Konshin estate, Sergei shouted: “Vasya!” You have all of Stalin's movements in your computer. Well, tell me, was he in the Serpukhov area? “Vasya turned on the computer and answered: “I was there twice.” Once at the dacha of a foreign writer, and another time at Ordzhonikidze’s dacha.

I was prepared for this turn of events. The fact is that not only John Reed (a journalist and writer of one book) is buried in the Kremlin wall, but 117 foreigners are buried there! And this was from November 1917 to January 1919!! These are the same German, Austrian and American communists from the Kremlin offices. People like Fox-Lisitsyn, John Reed and other Americans who left their mark on Soviet history after the fall of Trotsky were legalized as journalists by official Soviet historians. (An interesting parallel: the artist Roerich’s expedition to Tibet from Moscow was paid for by the Americans in 1920! This means there were a lot of them there). Others ran away - they were not children and knew what awaited them. By the way, apparently, this Fox was the founder of the cinema empire “XX Century Fox” in 1934 after the expulsion of Trotsky.

But let's return to Stalin. I think few people will believe that Stalin traveled 100 km from Moscow to meet with a “foreign writer” or even Sergo Ordzhonikidze! He received them in the Kremlin.

He met the Tsar there!! With the man in the iron mask!!!

And this was in the 30s. This is where the imagination of writers can unfold!

These two meetings are very intriguing to me. I'm sure they discussed at least one topic seriously. And Stalin did not discuss this topic with anyone. He believed the Tsar, not his marshals! This is the Finnish war - the Finnish campaign, as it is shyly called in Soviet history. Why the campaign - after all, there was a war? Yes, because there was no preparation - a campaign! And only the tsar could give such advice to Stalin. He had been in captivity for 20 years. The king knew the past - Finland was never a state. The Finns really defended themselves to the last. When the order for a truce came, several thousand soldiers came out of the Soviet trenches, and only four from the Finnish ones.

Instead of an afterword

About 10 years ago I told this story to my Moscow colleague Sergei. When he reached the Konshin estate, where the Tsar and the Tsarevich were settled, he became agitated, stopped the car and said:

- Let my wife tell you.

– I dialed the number on my mobile and asked:

- Darling, do you remember how we were students in 1972 in Serpukhov on the Konshina estate, where is the local history museum? Tell me, why were we shocked then?

“And my dear wife answered me on the phone:

“We were completely horrified.” All graves have been opened. We were told that they were plundered by bandits.

I think that it was not the bandits, but that they had already decided to deal with the bones at the right moment. By the way, in the Konshin estate there was the grave of Colonel Romanov. The king was a colonel.

June 2012, Paris – Berlin

The Romanov case, or the execution that never happened

A. Summers T. Mangold

translation: Yuri Ivanovich Senin

The Romanov Case, or the Execution that Never Happened

The story described in this book can be called a detective story, although it is the result of a serious journalistic investigation. Dozens of books told with great conviction how the Bolsheviks shot the Royal Family in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

It would seem that the version of the execution of the Royal Family has been clearly proven. However, in most of these works, the “bibliography” section mentions the book by American journalists A. Summers and T. Mangold “The file on the tsar”, published in London in 1976. Mentioned, that's all. No comments, no links. And no translations. Even the original of this book is not easy to find.